Pit Bull Rule Withdrawn by Lindsay Whitehurst The Herald Bulletin
Pit bulls may not be aggressive, but their owners can be — if only in defense of the dogs they love. In the face of close to 200 supporters at its Thursday meeting, the Anderson Board of Public Safety dropped a proposed anti-pit bull ordinance. “They’re not aggressive, people make them that way,” said 31-year-old homemaker Cyndi Fuller. “You have to treat them like an extension of your family — that’s what they are.” The board proposed the new rule — which would have required $300,000 worth of insurance, muzzles in public, and other regulations — to deal with a “mounting problem” with dog bites in Anderson, especially among children, like 11-year-old Katie Boyd. She has a large, curved scar on her forehead, a reminder of a pit bull attack in February. Boyd went to a friend’s house to drop off a coat when the dog attacked her and, “ripped off a third of her scalp,” her father, 44-year-old Mitchell Lake, said. Because of a mistaken start time, they arrived too late to address the crowd at the meeting. In the past eight months, Anderson police Maj. Dale Koons said, 25 percent of dog bites have been from pit bulls. The breed’s supporters later refuted his statistics, saying that in some cases, the type of dog was mistaken by police or the victim. “I don’t think the Anderson Police Department has a dog problem, I think they have a people problem,” Madison County Sheriff Terry Richwine said. The crowd cheered uproariously. At other times, they clapped and shouted slogans: “Punish the deed, not the breed!” and “Fine the dog’s owners!” Anderson veterinarian Rick Chaille, 52, maintained that all dogs, small and large, can be dangerous if not properly trained and controlled. “Breed specific regulations are not the way to go,” he said. In the packed Geater Center, only one person answered Safety Board Chairman Reginald Lee’s call for people in support of the ordinance. “I have nine grandchildren,” Rudy Williams, the 61-year-old co-owner of The Wild Bunch lawn service, said. “I live on the west side, and all I see are people trotting around with pit bulls. If one child gets bit, then it’s too late.” “I have three little girls, and I’d rather have a pit bull guard them than a person,” said 35-year-old Chris Aynes, a disabled Anderson roofer, responded. Jill Dolon, 34, operates a pit bull rescue in Muncie. In response to the board’s call for new solutions, she brought up her 5-year-old American pit bull Athena. Dog and mistress dressed in matching “Breed bans don’t work!” T-shirts. “We bring Athena into the schools. She’s our ‘ambassador dog,’” she said. “Think about educating people in the schools.”
