[Njagdu] Dog-on-dog violence: Law would mean big penalties for attacks on guide dogs

[Ginger Kutsch]

FYI. This article quotes Assem. Mainor as having said that Dusty's Law will
be scheduled for a hearing in November so let's hope so. The interview I had
with the reporter several months ago was quoted incorrectly in some places
though so I hope he was right on with Mainor.  

 

Dog-on-dog violence: Law would mean big penalties for attacks on guide dogs

By  Louis C. Hochman/NJ.com   

September 17, 2013 

http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2013/09/dog-on-guide-dog_violence.html

 

 

Assemblyman Charles Mainor remembers feeling helpless.

 

The Seeing Eye, the nation's first guide dog school, had come to the
Statehouse late last year with a message - and a blindfold. The latter
helped the Morristown-based school deliver the former.

 

dusty.jpgDusty, a dog being trained by the Seeing Eye, was attacked in 2010.
He can no longer function as a guide dog, the program says.Courtesy of the
Seeing Eye   

 

Mainor remembers the cloth going over his eyes, and for a moment, getting
just the briefest impression of what it might be like to be blind. 

"It took away all my sense. It took everything away from me," he said. "And
I had no choice but to rely on this dog."

 

The dog - one of the Seeing Eye's trained guides - took the 31st District
Assemblyman through a crowd. He didn't bump into a single person, he said.

 

"It showed me how valuable these dogs are, taking people through their
normal lives every day," he said.

 

That's the experience that convinced him to become a primary sponsor for
Dusty's Law - which would make it a crime to recklessly allow an animal to
kill, injure or interfere with a guide dog. The state Senate passed its
version of the bill last year, but it's yet to come up for a vote in the
Assembly.

 

Penalties for allowing an animal to kill a guide dog would be the most
severe - it would be a fourth-degree crime, punishable by imprisonment of up
to 18 months, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. Allowing an animal to injure
or interfere with a guide dog would be a disorderly persons offense. with
lesser penalties.

 

It would also require restitution if a guide dog is killed or injured. Costs
could include the value of the dog, replacement dog training, veterinary
bills, and lost income by the handler. Seeing Eye communications manager
Craig Garretson told NJ.com last year it costs about $60,000 to train a
guide dog.

 

In a survey of 744 guide dog users the Seeing Eye published in 2011, 44
percent said their guides had experienced at least one attack by another
animal. Eighty-three percent of respondents reported some kind of
interference by another animal.

 

The law's namesake, Seeing Eye dog Dusty, was attacked by a pit bull while
working with his trainer in Woodcliff Lake, in 2010.

 

Dusty was walking with his trainer, Roger Woodhour, when a pit bull charged
from a Woodcliff Avenue home, NorthJersey.com reported at the time. The pit
bull's owner had left her house for a moment, and the pit bull escaped
through a door that was ajar, according to the report.

 

"I believe no one is going to question someone else's lifeline." -
Assemblyman Charles Mainor

 

The pit bull badly injured Woodhour's own hand as he tried to pull it off of
Dusty, according to the report. Dusty himself sustained serious injures to
his neck, leg and head, it said. 

 

Garretson and Seeing Eye advocacy specialist Ginger Kutsch told NJ.com
earlier this year Dusty had to leave the Seeing Eye program.

 

"He was adopted by another family. He's doing well, but he's still afraid of
other dogs," Kutsch said at the time. "Our dogs can't be afraid of things
when they're in the harness. A guide dog as to be able to perform his
duties."

 

Guide dogs are particularly susceptible to attack because their handlers
can't help them avoid aggressive animals, Garretson said at the time. And a
guide dog isn't going to lunge out of the way, potentially putting its
handler at risk with a quick jerk of motion, Kutsch said.

 

Kutsch's own guide dog, a German shepherd named Molly, was attacked in 2002.
She described the feeling to NJ.com the same way Mainor described that of
putting on the blindfold - one of helplessness.

 

But Kutsch was out in the real world, with an aggressive animal nearby, and
a chance of stepping out off curb or into another dangerous situation
without anyone or anything to stop her. And she couldn't get her vision back
by pulling off a cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

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