Dog Attacks

This is a comment I posted today on a local message board. Dog attacks are a problem and the animal control person would rather take on a hostile person (me) than hostile dogs. My daughter made several suggestions which helped me in approaching this from a legal stantpoint.



Maybe I'm confused but I thought this was a Message Board and I was free to exercise my first Amendment rights to share my opinions/experiences.

Was this appropriate behavior?
Yesterday an animal control officer came to my home whose sole purpose was to object to my comments. She said I had dissed animal control and it was not appreciated. She said the tone of my comments left the impression that animal control wasn't doing their job. She then said she hadn't had lunch for 2 years because of job demands. I then offered her lunch which she blew off. I asked about putting signs up at the parks about leash laws and fines and she blew that off too.

She also rewrote my experience with the pitbull that attacked my little dog. Insisted that my perceptions of the whole thing was wrong. Then she said because I walked with a cane that I was a target for dogs and that I likely exuded fear which would attract them. I confess, I do walk with a cane and that cane has been my weapon against attack by these dogs. I fear a future attack but I'm not fearful when the attack is imminent because I'm too busy planning my defense. And now it gets interesting.
she said unless she witnesses the actual attack they cannot do anything about it! (hey wait a minute. don't police officers arrest suspects without having witnessed the crime???) She also said if the dog isn't hostile, just leave your name with the police department (282-3535), along with the dog & owner's description and they would try to locate them later. She was very upset that I had called the PD with recent hostile dog reports and didn't leave my name. She said she listened to the recording of my call and recognized my voice which is how she knew who wrote those wretched comments. which brings me to this: Always try to be in front of an animal control officer if you're in imminent danger of being attacked by a dog. The responsibility for protecting ourselves is up to us. Let me caution you though that guns are not acceptable within city limits. I think we should Plan Animal Control Officer Day so we can recognize her efforts in ridding the streets of hostile dogs and dogs off leashes. This should include a nice lunch seeing as how she has missed lunch for 2 years.

And speaking of rules, I don't understand why we even have a leash law if
there isn't strict enforcement of said law. it appears that all those dogs are running loose at Highland Park because their owners think it IS a dog park.

Example: This Morning I walked to Highland Park hiking trails and encountered a man with his brown and white rat terrier running free. (The animal control officer had told me to try and engage the dog owner in conversation and nicely point out that there were leash laws) so I tried to chat with the dog owner about the leash laws. He said 'Yuh' and walked away, his dog still running free. The second dog owner was in the process of teaching his dog to stay. When he saw me he immediately put his dog back on the leash. I changed my tactics with him and suggested there was a crackdown on unleashed dogs and the fines were stiff. He thanked me and continued his walk with dog on leash. Did I call either of them in to the PD? Nope! Both people had driven to the park and I couldn't run fast enough to get their license tags.

Stay tuned......