Akita rescuer Carol Harris is record 5th fatality of 2017 by shelter dogs

Kenneth & Carol Harris.  (Family photo)

Killed in kennel by dog of unknown history during socialization session

            PHOENIX,  Arizona––Carol Harris,  69,  a 12-year volunteer for Akita Advocates Relocation Team Arizona,  shared two Akitas with her husband Kenneth.

The Harrises fostered four other Akitas.

Carol Harris “adored the breed and worked hard to find them loving homes,”  having helped to rehome more than 500 Akitas altogether,  Kenneth Harris told Phoenix 3-TV/CBC-5 reporter Maria Hechanova.

Carol Harris  (Kenneth Harris)

“They’re not aggressive.  Just like pit bulls…”

Expecting to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on January 2,  2018,  Carol and Kenneth Harris were instead parted on December 20,  2017 when an Akita of as yet undisclosed history mauled her during a socialization session at the Canine Country Club & Feline Inn,  where Akita Advocates rented kennel space.

Insisted Kenneth Harris to Hechanova,  “They’re not aggressive.  Just like pit bulls, people think that they’re all aggressive.  They’re not.”

But if a woman who had handled more than 500 Akitas over 12 years could not recognize the risk presented by the Akita who killed her,  what chance would anyone else have?

Helicopter photo of Akita, possibly the one who killed Carol Harris, shows markings similar to those on this Akita (two views of one dog) on the Facebook page of Akita Advocates.

Akitas 10th among breeds in causing human fatalities

Akitas have killed fewer people (9) in the U.S. and Canada since 1982 than pit bulls and pit mixes (408),  Rottweilers (107),  German shepherds and huskies (30 each),  bull mastiffs (21), wolf hybrids (19),  boxers (13),  and chows and chow mixes (12),  and have killed the same number as Dobermans.  But this makes up 92% of the total dog attack fatalities over the past 35 years,  inflicted by 20% of the dog population.

“The dog involved in the attack is now dead. It was euthanized Thursday and was taken to the state lab for rabies testing,”  Hechanova finished.

Rabies testing remains a sensible precaution when a dog attacks someone for no apparent reason.  Of note,  however,  is that no one has died from a rabid dog attack in either the U.S. or Canada in more than 25 years.

Blue, above, killed Margaret Colvin, 90, moments after his shock collar (shown above) was removed by Colvin’s daughter. (See How multi-state effort to save the pit bull Blue led to Code Blue for Margaret Colvin.)  (Facebook photo)

Year of record mayhem by shelter & rescue dogs

With 10 days left in 2017,  dogs from animal shelters and rescues have inflicted a record 39 known disfigurements of humans,  including 30 by pit bulls,  and only one by a dog not among the ten breed types who have inflicted the most fatalities.

Dogs from animal shelters and rescues have also killed at least five people, one more than in any previous year,  and three more than in the 19th and 20th centuries combined.

The other dead include Louise Hermida,  75,  killed by a bull mastiff she had adopted from New York City Animal Care & Control in 2011,  and reportedly intended to return to the NY/CACC due to increasingly dangerous behavior;   Lisa Green,  32,  killed by a pit bull she had adopted in 2014 from the Peaceable Kingdom shelter in Allentown,  Pennsylvania;  Margaret Colvin,  90,  killed by a pit bull her daughter had just adopted from the Forever Home Rescue & Rehabilitation Center in Virginia Beach,  Virginia;  and Sandra Kaiser,  71,  killed by a “rescue dog” of undisclosed breed and origin in Redding,  Connecticut.

(Beth Clifton collage)

(See also Three dead, two critically injured, in hotbeds of pit bull advocacy and How multi-state effort to save the pit bull Blue led to Code Blue for Margaret Colvin.)

Lawsuits bring information forward

Whatever the known totals of deaths and disfigurements by shelter and rescue dogs are at year’s end,  they are likely to rise during the next several years as more information about attacks comes to light as result of lawsuits filed by victims and next-of-kin.

Usually the source of a dog who mauls someone is not disclosed in immediate reports about the incident.  An exception was the December 17,  2017 mauling of Luca Romero,  age 2,  by a pit/Lab mix at an adoption event held by Dallas Pets Alive at Klyde Warren Park.

“Cho said she was told the dogs were friendly and that they were welcome to pet them,”  wrote Dallas Morning News reporter Claire Ballor.  “She said her son,  who loves dogs and is used to playing with their German shepherd,  petted several dogs,  including the one who later attacked him,”  biting his right arm and chest.

“Four to five large men had to come in and literally pry the dog off of him,”  Cho said.

Joshua Phillip Strother, 6, killed on July 7, 2015 by a pit bull rehomed by the Asheville Humane Society after passing the ASPCA’s SAFER test.

Dogs are screened

Dallas Pets Alive executive director Leslie Sans “said the volunteer-based organization screens all of its animals before bringing them to adoption events and before they are adopted out,”  Ballor wrote.

Behavioral screening,  in the most widely practiced present form,  was introduced with the SAFER test developed by Emily Weiss in 1999 and adopted as an official program of the American SPCA in 2007.  Coincidentally,  46 of the 49 shelter and rescue dogs known to have killed humans have been rehomed since 2007.  The ASPCA quit certifying SAFER testers in December 2015,  and transferred Weiss to head an equine welfare program in November 2017.

(See Did ASPCA discover certifying SAFER dog screening might be dangerous? and What pit bull advocates don’t learn from their own maulings.)

Among attacks by shelter and rescue dogs recently becoming known through lawsuits were the November 2015 mauling of a child by a dog of undisclosed breed in Harris County,  Texas,  and the December 2015 mauling of would-be adopter Michael Casanova by a German shepherd at a kennel in Berlin,  Connecticut,  which had been contracted to do animal control housing for the city of New Britain.

Defendants in the Harris County case,  filed by Margaret Maag,  the mother of the victim,  include Almost Home Pet Rescue Inc., PetSmart Inc.,  and pit bull advocate Jennifer Lods.

Defendants in the Connecticut case include the city of New Britain,  animal control officer James Russo,  and the former owner of the German shepherd.

(Beth Clifton collage)

State pen not secure enough for pit bulls

An incident of undisclosed date at the Albion Correctional Facility in upstate New York recently brought a warning to all concerned from the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.

“The prison had just initiated a new canine program to help shelter dogs with poor socialization skills,”  the union summarized in a media release.  “Participating inmates are responsible for helping the animals adjust, so they can be adopted.”

One of the first two dogs in the program was a pit bull,  who attacked the other dog,  also injuring an inmate who intervened.

“My immediate concern is that this program does not have the necessary resources and training to be effective and safe for our staff and inmates,”  New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association western region vice president Joe Miano said. “These are dogs who are unfortunately aggressive and with poor socialization,  which makes them very dangerous for inmates and staff who are not trained to handle canines.”

But if a medium security penitentiary does not have the necessary resources and training to keep dogs of suspect behavior adequately contained and confined,  what institution does?

(Beth Clifton collage)

Warning from the Catskills

Warning from the lower Catskills of a mindset now prevalent among the board,  volunteers,  and many of the staff at shelters and rescues throughout the U.S.,  former Humane Society of Deerpark & Port Jervis director Lee Curtis on December 12,  2017 told News 12 viewers that,  as reporter Blaise Gomez summarized,  “The board of directors [are] telling staff to turn a blind eye to a dog’s violent history,  instead adopting out the animal as if there’s no problem.”

Said Curtis,  “I personally know of two dogs in that facility that have bitten people that are still available for adoption.”

Two dogs identified as dangerous by former Humane Society of Deerpark & Port Jervis director Lee Curtis (top inset) and office manager Kristin Pietrykowski (lower inset).

Continued Gomez,  “She says one of the dogs they adopted out bit a 3-year-old child in the face and caused very severe damage.  Curtis says one of the dogs even attacked her in August.  She says she was let go two weeks after the incident for insisting that dog and others who were violent be put down.”

Shelter calls complaints “frivolous” and “sad”

Humane Society of Deerpark & Port Jervis office manager Kristin Pietrykowski tearfully stepped forward two days later to verify Curtis’ complaint,  putting her job on the line.

In one instance,  Gomez narrated,  “Pietrykowski says she started to look at files and noticed there were five different complaints about a dog that was up for adoption.”

The complaints were shown on camera.

“In an email,”  News 12 anchor Scott McGee added,  “a shelter representative called the allegations ‘frivolous’ and ‘sad.’”

Blue adoption promo photos.
(Forever Home Rescue & Rehabilitation)

Virginia legislator seeks to mandate disclosure of bite history

Fed up with that sort of non-response,  Virginia state senator Bill DeSteph (R-Virginia Beach) told Ryan Murphy of the Virginian Pilot that he plans to introduce legislation in January 2018 to “require animal shelters and other agencies to make potential adopters and any other receiving groups aware of the animal’s past biting incidents. Any group that ‘willfully fails’ to provide documentation about bites in an animal’s past would face up to a $1,000 fine,  according to a draft of the legislation,  which has not yet been officially filed,”  Murphy wrote.

DeSteph’s constituency is the community where Margaret Colvin,  90,  was killed in May 2017 by a dog with a multi-state history of problematic behavior,  who had passed through several rescue organizations before being rehomed by the Forever Home Rescue & Rehabilitation Center.

Sharon Adams

The pending bill is endorsed in concept by 22-year Virginia Beach SPCA chief executive Sharon Adams,  who now chairs the Virginia Alliance for Animal Shelters.

“Egregious failure”

“The Colvin case was an example of the egregious failure, because they knew it wasn’t the first time,” Adams told Murphy. “I don’t think legislation fixes everything, but it seems like we had a failure on the part of releasing agencies to be as responsible about public safety as they should be.”

Editorialized the Virginian Pilot,  “Information about an animal’s behavior is an important consideration in the decision to adopt.  Families with small children or vulnerable adults,  in particular,  want to ensure that a dog will be gentle and friendly in their home.  Some people might be open to adopting a dog with a history of biting,  though many aren’t.

“Even those who are willing to accept a dog that has bitten others need to know about the animal’s prior actions so they can better understand how to respond to it and,  if possible,  provide training to help change the dog’s behavior.

Merritt & Beth Clifton

“A state law shouldn’t be required to make adoption agencies release that information,”  the Virginian Pilot finished,  “but sometimes laws are a necessary step to prevent abuses that threaten the health and safety of the public.”

ANIMALS 24-7 has editorially favored the same approach,  combined with mandatory disclosure of visually recognizable breed identity.  (See Ideas for non-BSL that might really stop pit bull attacks.)

Please donate to support our work: 

https://www.animals24-7.org/donate/