Pit Bull Concerns in White Lake Township, MI Could Lead to New Public Safety Ordinance and …More of the Story

Sarah Bazinet was walking her Golden Retriever, Marley, in February 2023, when three pit bulls got through their fence and two of them attacked Bazinet’s dog. Marley survived but sustained serious injuries. The attack traumatized Sarah and prompted her to voice her concerns about dangerous dogs at the public Township Board meeting on May 16, 2023.

Ann Marie Rogers of Responsible Citizens for Public Safety attended the White Lake meeting to support Sarah and to relay facts and data to the board about dangerous dog attacks and how to best protect residents from them.

“Good Evening. My name is Ann Marie Rogers from Responsible Citizens for Public Safety.

We promote public safety through canine awareness education and we advocate for victims of dangerous dog attacks. I am a retired animal control officer and have worked in the animal welfare field for years. I am here tonight on behalf of Sarah Bazinet and Marley.

I sent an email earlier today to this board with information on dog maulings and how to prevent them on a municipal level with safety ordinances. I have also given you brochures with information.

The facts are that Pit Bulls are the #1 canine killer of people, pets and livestock every year followed by Rottweilers. Over 700 Americans have been killed by pit bull type dogs. Thousands more have been severely disfigured, dismembered and disabled in pit bull attacks. Most attacks never make the news and are underreported.

White Lake Township made national news on October of 2021 when a 9-year old boy was savagely mauled by two rescued pit bulls while playing at his friend’s house. He suffered a fractured skull, brain swelling and disfigurement. He is fortunate to have survived the attack. His medical bills were astronomical and are still ongoing. He has years of reconstructive surgeries ahead of him. Lifelong trauma because of someone’s pet choice.

Sarah has suffered trauma after her dog was attacked. These vicious attacks were unprovoked.

People should not be held hostage in their homes because they fear dangerous dogs could attack them in their neighborhoods.

So how can we keep our communities safe from dangerous dog attacks? Breed Safety Laws.

The purpose of a breed specific ordinance is not to prevent bites, but to prevent maulings. Bites require Band-aids or stitches. Maulings require multiple reconstructive surgeries and sometimes caskets.

All dogs can bite. Most dog breeds release quickly. Pit bulls don’t let go. This behavior is genetic. Unlike other dog breeds, pit bulls were bred specifically to kill other dogs. They are fighting dogs, not “nanny” dogs. They do not have to be trained or abused to kill. It’s their genetic instinct.

Waterford Township has had a pit bull ban for over 30 years and has not had any serious dog attacks or fatalities. Over 35 other Michigan towns have some form of BSL. We want municipalities to be proactive with their ordinances to prevent attacks on the public.

Michigan is now free to enact breed safety laws. The pit bull lobby and their preemption bill was defeated in three legislative cycles. The common sense doctrine of local control still stands in Michigan. The government closest to the people should have the authority to keep their residents safe from dangerous dogs. This really is a matter of life and death. The safety of humans should always come first.”

Reporter Peg McNichol from The Oakland Press covered the issue and wrote this substantive article on Sunday, June 18, 2023.

Rogers sent an email detailing information, facts and data on dog attacks and how to keep communities safe by enacting breed safety laws to the White Lake Township Board prior to the meeting.

Dear White Lake Board of Trustees: White Lake residents want to feel safe in their community. They want to be able to be able to walk outside or be in their own yard without fear of being attacked by dangerous dogs. White Lake resident Sarah Bazinet no longer feels safe. She was walking her golden retriever down her street when the neighbor’s three pit bulls ran through the fence and attacked her dog on a public street. Her dog sustained significant injuries. The owners minor age son suffered puncture wounds when trying to separate the dogs. While thankfully Sarah’s dog will recover, Sarah has persistent trauma from experiencing this attack on her beloved pet. Her dog was fortunate to survive. Many do not. 

In October 2021, Hunter Heater, age 9, was attacked and severely injured by a friend’s two “rescued pit bulls” while playing at his friend’s home. This sustained mauling left Hunter with a fractured skull, brain swelling and many years of reconstructive surgeries ahead of him. This attack in White Lake, MI made national news after being reported in both Newsweek and People. Dogs Attack Boy Playing on Trampoline, Biting Him 75 Times (Newsweek.com) “It is an image I will never [forget], his skin was just hanging and you could see his skull and his artery in his neck,” the boy’s mother, Rachel Heater, told WJBK. Michigan Boy Mauled by 2 Dogs, Family Seeks Help with Medical Bills (People.com) “He’s having a very hard time adjusting,” Hunter’s mother, Rachel Heater, wrote on Nov. 13 about her son’s attempt to try to go back to school. “His flashbacks and freak outs have escalated this week. Along with his night terrors.”

Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL) FAQ – DogsBite.org

Breed-specific legislation is a type of dangerous dog law. It is defined as any ordinance or policy that pertains to a specific dog breed or several breeds, but does not affect any others. Proponents of breed-specific laws seek to limit public exposure to well-documented dangerous dog breeds by regulating the ownership of them. The objective of breed-specific legislation, which primarily targets pit bulls and their derivatives, is to prevent severe and fatal attacks before they occur.

Dangerous dog laws that are non breed-specific usually react after a damaging or deadly attack; they do not prevent the first attack. A trend in parts of the U.S. and 54 other countries is to regulate a small group of breeds that have a genetic propensity to attack and inflict severe, disfiguring injuries so that first attacks by these breeds can be averted. First attacks by pit bulls, for instance, almost always result in severe injury. In some cases, the first bite by a pit bull or rottweiler is fatal.

Do breed-specific laws work?

Well enforced breed-specific pit bull laws absolutely reduce damaging attacks by pit bulls. In our ongoing report, Cities with Successful Pit Bull Laws; Data Shows Breed-Specific Laws Work, we document these results in the U.S. and Canada. The most dramatic results are often seen in jurisdictions that ban pit bulls because a ban reduces the breeding and the importation of new pit bulls into a community. There have been excellent results with other types of ordinances as well.

After Aurora, Colorado adopted a pit bull ban ordinance in 2005, attacks by pit bulls decreased 73% (from 2005 to 2014). After Pawtucket, Rhode Island adopted a pit bull ban in 2004, the city released 13 years of bite data showing that in the 4 years leading up to the ban, there were 52 pit bull attacks on people. In the 10 years after the ban, there were only 13. After the city was forced to lift its longstanding ban in late 2013, pit bull bites increased by over a ten-fold in just 5 years.

The dramatic reduction in pit bull attacks on people and pets are not the only benefits. Over the same period in Aurora, pit bull euthanasia dropped 93%. In Pawtucket, the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA) had “regularly” convened vicious dog hearings for pit bulls before the ban ordinance. During the ban years, the RISPCA never saw another one from Pawtucket. Other cities report a substantial reduction in vicious dog designations as well.

After Springfield, Missouri adopted a pit bull ordinance in 2006, impoundments of pit bulls were quickly cut in half, freeing up shelter space. In the year before the ordinance, 502 pit bulls were impounded, by 2007 only 252 and by 2017 only 140.7 When breed-specific laws are combined with an anti-chaining element, as was done in Little Rock’s pit bull ordinance, excellent outcomes also resulted: The commonality of seeing a pit bull chained in its owner’s yard disappeared.

BSL forces owners of dangerous dogs to be responsible by following reasonable regulations.

From DogsBite.org: In the 15-year period of 2005 through 2019, canines killed 521 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66% (346) of these deaths. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers contributed to 76% of the total recorded deaths.

Victims of severe dog attacks often suffer acute damage, which may require $300,000 to one million dollars in specialized medical care treatment. Reconstructive surgery, such as skin grafts, tissue expansion and scar diminishment, often requires multiple procedures over a period of years. Medical studies show that pit bulls are inflicting the majority of these damaging attacks.

Why not just enforce the laws we already have?

Most cities have laws that take effect after a person has been bitten or attacked, in some instances, only after a second person has been bitten or attacked. In these jurisdictions, a pit bull can maul two separate victims, leaving each with severe injury before any substantial penalties are triggered. Such antiquated state and local laws were designed to address “common” dog bites that result in minor injuries, not pit bull mauling injuries that often result in life-altering damage.

Most current state and local dog attack laws also fail to sufficiently criminally penalize a dog owner after a severe attack. Cases abound where the owner of a dog is given a minor “infraction” for failure to leash his pet or failure to vaccinate his dog after a victim is airlifted to a Level I trauma center or killed. The phrase, “just enforce the laws we have” is deceitful given how paltry many existing laws are, not to mention how few states have a meaningful felony dog attack statute.

The grandfather of a 5-year-old boy killed by a dog Monday night said the dog’s owner got off too light, after being cited for two ordinance violations.

“That’s all you get? My grandson’s gone forever, and all you get is two tickets? Yeah, I have a problem with that,” James Nevils said of the mauling death of his grandson, James Nevils III.28 -James Nevils Sr., CBS Chicago, May 27, 2015

The solution is not to enforce the inadequate laws we already have, often further hindered by existing legal systems that offer insufficient routes to civil and criminal recourse. The solution is to create preventative laws that greatly reduce the risk of dangerous dog breeds, primarily pit bulls, from ever inflicting a first attack. This radically reduces grave injuries and the need for victims to endure both deficient legal processes. These are the two primary goals of breed-specific laws.

Breed-specific legislation recognizes the cost and severity of victims’ injuries and the difficulties of receiving compensation after a serious attack. Many owners of dangerous breeds do not have sufficient insurance policies or any coverage at all. Proactive breed-specific laws require owners of these breeds to carry liability insurance in the baseline amount of $100,000 or the recommended amount of $300,000. So if an attack does occur, the victim at least has a clear path to recourse.

Your neighboring community, Waterford Township, has had a pit bull ban for over 30 years and to date has not had a severe attack or fatality in that time. Over 35 other communities in Michigan have some form of BSL- be it mandatory spay/neuter of pit bulls and other dangerous breeds, liability insurance, proper containment or muzzling in public.

Michigan banned dog/wolf hybrids throughout the state in the year 2000 after one child was killed by a suspected hybrid.  

Michigan has had hundreds of attacks on people, pets and livestock in Michigan by pit bulls and over 20 fatalities. 176 are listed on NationalPitBullVictimAwareness.org from 2015-2022.

Pit bull attack database (with keywords, etc) | National Pit Bull Victim Awareness

This does not include attacks and deaths caused by other dangerous breed dogs such as Rottweilers or Cane Corsos.

Pit bull type dogs are the number one canine killer of people, pets and livestock every year followed by Rottweilers. Over 700 Americans have been killed because someone chose a pit bull as a pet. Thousands more have been severely disfigured, dismembered and disabled by pit bulls.

Why are pit bulls so popular if they are dangerous?

1. Pit bulls are not more popular than other dogs, but they represent up to 80% of abandoned and stray dogs in shelters at any given time.
2. Advocacy for pit bulls is extremely disproportionate to the actual numbers of pit bulls. There are 78 million dogs in the US, and only 3.5 million or 4.5% of them are pit bulls.
3. Virtually all members of the pit bull industry profit financially from promoting pit bulls.
4. Millions of dollars are spent annually on pit bull promotion in an effort to convince the public that they are safe family pets.

What makes pit bulls more dangerous than other dogs?

1. People who own pit bulls are not necessarily capable of training them or stopping an attack.
2. Pit bull attacks are one of the biggest public safety issues in America today.
3. Pit bulls are zero-error dogs. There is zero room for mistakes like gates, doors or windows left open or unlocked; for leashes, chains and muzzles breaking or coming loose; or for people not strong enough or experienced enough to prevent attacks.

The dogs that are causing these severe and fatal attacks are by and large pet dogs, not feral, rabid dogs in packs running loose as they do in third world countries. They are owned by irresponsible owners or naïve owners that do not realize the inherent genetics of fighting breed dogs. There is rarely evidence that any of the attacking dogs were abused or trained to kill.  This should alarm you. Dangerous dog attacks can and do happen in every type of neighborhood.

The medical data regarding pit bull attacks is clear. Doctors are now calling pit bull attacks a “public health crisis”.

Level 1 Trauma Center Studies – Nonfatal Dog Bite Injuries (2011-2018) – DogsBite.org

“Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites.”

Below is a link to graphic images of pit bull attack victims. It’s clear from viewing these graphic images that “dog bites” are not the issue- these are victims of dog maulings- a sustained attack.

WARNING! Graphic Photos/Videos of Pit Bull Victims

This is information for you to consider for public safety in your community. Now you know that dangerous dog attacks resulting in severe injury and death are not uncommon. White Lake has made the news due to dangerous dog attacks.

Going forward, what will this board do to keep White Lake Township residents safe from future dangerous dog attacks?

Respectfully,

Ann Marie Rogers

Responsible Citizens for Public Safety, President

RC4PS.org

One Trustee was upset that Rogers presented facts to White Lake residents about the dangers pit bulls present to public safety. She stated the email Rogers sent to the board was “untruthful” and that she was “offended” by it. The email sent to the board is listed above.