Contra Costa limits felons owning dogs

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Limits on felons owning dogs get OK
Supervisors vote to support ban on aggressive animals

Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The proposal would also for the first time require people with dogs deemed potentially dangerous to apply for a permit to keep their dog and to abide by certain rules. Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier said his desire to do something about dangerous dogs was galvanized by the March 29 mauling of 11-year-old JaQuan Rice Jr., as the boy walked near his home in Concord.

"From my perspective, it's directed more toward the humans, in this case felons,'' said DeSaulnier, who repeatedly said he has a rottweiler adopted from the pound and is not targeting specific breeds. "This isn't about the dogs.''

In the attack on Rice, police arrested Jeff Bray, who they said was using the dogs to protect a marijuana growing operation. Bray, 28, has since pleaded guilty to allowing a vicious dog to cause bodily injury and to being a convict in possession of a firearm, said Deputy District Attorney Matt O'Connor. He is awaiting sentencing.

Bray, 28, had been arrested in 2004 on a felony charge related to marijuana cultivation, but had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, O'Connor said.

Supervisor John Gioia, who wrote the proposed ordinance with DeSaulnier and other county officials, stressed that, in addition to banning felons from owning certain dogs, the proposal would lower the threshold for declaring a dog potentially dangerous and for the first time would require owners of such animals to apply for permits.

"We should be imposing these conditions before they bite,'' Gioia said. "I don't want to wait until the harm has occurred.''

Gioia said he did not know of another county in the state that had a similar law banning felons from owning large or aggressive dogs.

Animal Services Director Glenn Howell said the new law would help his office better address emerging problems before people get hurt. In the past the county could only advise owners to take certain actions when they determined a dog was potentially dangerous.

Under the new law, the county could require owners of dogs exhibiting certain behaviors to attend obedience classes, to keep the animals in secure confines that have been inspected, and to register their dogs with the county. Dogs that do not repeat egregious behavior for a three-year period would be eligible to have their "potentially dangerous" designation removed.

Contra Costa County's attempt to regulate ownership of dangerous dogs follows an effort to mandate spaying and neutering of pit bull and pit bull mixes and the signing of a new state law that allows local governments to pass such laws.

Contra Costa also is considering such legislation, and may require that all dogs be spayed or neutered unless the owners have a license for breeding.

Nobody spoke against the proposal during Tuesday's board meeting, when the proposed ordinance was officially introduced.

But members of the ex-prisoners advocacy group All of Us or None, said they would be at the Nov. 15 hearing to protest the law, which they called discriminatory.'

"It's such a crazy thing. There is no correlation between a felony conviction and (problem) dog ownership,'' said Linda Evans, an organizer with the group.

District Attorney Bob Kochly, whose office helped draft the proposed legislation, told supervisors that the new rules would improve public safety.

"We don't allow felons to own firearms,'' Kochly said. "A dog can be nearly as deadly, as we've seen in this county, as a firearm.''

A separate hearing also is scheduled Nov. 15 to discuss what fees should be imposed upon dog owners under the new law.


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