Dog attack prompts commission to pass law

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Dog attack prompts commission to pass law

By Tommy Stevenson
Associate Editor


TUSCALOOSA | After taking a look at the gruesome wounds suffered by a 7-year-old girl in an attack by a Rottweiler a week ago, the Tuscaloosa County Commission reversed an April vote Wednesday and unanimously approved an animal control law for the county.

“He threw me to the ground and kept biting me," Rhayann Murray told the commission Wednesday morning as her grandfather held up her dress to display numerous bites and scabs on her legs. “He dragged me, too."

James Stewart, Rhayann’s grandfather and legal guardian, also made an emotional plea for the commission to do something to prevent such future attacks by unattended dogs.

“I hate to see this happen to anybody else’s child," he said.

Stewart said that on doctors’ orders he has had to soak Rhayann’s wounds in a warm bacterial soap three and four times a day and “have heard her scream at the top of her lungs."

“I don’t think any grandparents or parents should have to go through anything like that," he said in a quavering voice.

Rhayann was attacked near the corner of Hannah Road and Kennedy Mill Road near Peterson on May 28.

The Rottweiler was later shot by a relative, but it has not been traced to its owner, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Ron Abernathy said. He said an investigation is under way.

While commonly called a “leash law," the ordinance adopted by the county does not mention the word leash.

The county does not have the ability to create such regulations because the Legislature has most of the law-making powers in the county, so the commission could only opt into a 1940 state animal control law.

The law says that “Every person owning or having in charge any dog or dogs shall at all times confine such dog or dogs to the limits of his own premises or the premises on which such dog or dogs is or are regularly kept."

But the law also says that it is not meant to “prevent the owner of any dogs or dogs or other person or persons having such dog or dogs to accompany such owner or other person or persons elsewhere than on the premises on which such dog or dogs is or are regularly kept."

Violation of the law is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine ranging from $2 to $50.

Before the new law was adopted Wednesday, the sheriff’s department could respond to calls about vicious dogs and transport them to the Tuscaloosa County Animal Shelter, but only if the dogs were not on their owners’ property and threatened the officers when they arrived, Abernathy said.

“If we arrived and the dog was not threatening anybody, there was nothing we could do," he said.

County Commission Chairman Hardy McCollum, who had opposed opting into the state law when the commission failed to approve it on a tie vote April 16, said he wished the county had the ability to tailor an ordinance more “to the needs of Tuscaloosa County."

He said the most pressing need for animal control ordinances are in the urbanized portions of the county such as Holt, Cottondale and Peterson, where the attack on Rhayann occurred.

“But because of a lack of home rule, we just have to make do with the state law, even though it is not a good fit in the more rural areas," he said.

Although the commission passed the new law on a 4-0 vote on a motion by Commissioner Gary Youngblood, some commissioners continued to express doubts that the county had the manpower to enforce it.

The county has an animal control officer, but he has to split his time between that duty and enforcing the county’s litter laws and informing residents when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood, Abernathy said.

He said passage of the new law is likely to result in “many, many more calls about dogs" to the sheriff’s department and estimated that if the county were to provide enforcement “twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week," it would require the equivalent of about two and a half officers.

After the commission passed the new animal control ordinance, it also unanimously passed a resolution by Commissioner Reginald Murray calling for the commission to “develop a plan" to fully implement the law when it draws up the new budget to go into effect on Oct. 1.

Although the new law does not specifically call for dogs to be on leashes or fenced in in the county, Karen Ray, executive director of T-Town PAWS said it should help with the county’s animal control situation.

“It’s a step in the right direction," she said. “Sometimes having something terrible like this child getting attacked is the only way that things get done.

“But I guess something had to happen before action could be taken."

Stewart said he also was glad the law was passed.

“They don’t get everybody who runs a red light, either," he said. “But if this lets them stop one attack from happening on another little girl or little boy, it is worth having it on the books."

[Wrath]

This law sounds very flimsy, it doesn't mandate leashes or even a fenced property, basically just makes it illegal for dogs to roam unattended. Pity a 7 year old had to be attacked in order to get such a bare minimum type solution instated.