A local woman is leading the charge against the dogs after her own dog and father-in-law were bitten. The issue pits pet-owner rights against neighborhood safety concerns. In some instances, homeowners associations in California have ordered the removal of dogs deemed dangerous and instituted other restrictions, according to HOA expert and attorney Beth A. Grimm’s website.
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| Dog bite injuries sustained by the Schoens' dog. Credit: Anita Schoen |
The Lake Forest homeowners association in this case will have to decide after its July 8 meeting when the board hears from both parties.
Dog owner Steve McClain argues his dogs are being unfairly targeted because the breed has a stigma as more likely to be violent, but his neighbor argues the that dogs represent a danger to the neighborhood.
Anita Schoen said her father-in-law was walking their golden Labrador down the street in their Rushford Drive neighborhood in Lake Forest last month when Steve McClain’s two pit bulls ran through an open gate and attacked the dog and bit her father-in-law on the hand as he tried to free the lab.
“The man Kenneth Schoen, 74, was bit on both hands in the attack and the Labrador has 9 puncture wounds to his neck and chest along with bites to his leg,” Anita Schoen said in an email. “The offending dogs' owner came out of the house and helped stop the attack. Both man and Labrador required medical treatment.”
Schoen called Orange County Animal Care Services on the dogs. The agency mandated that McClain quarantine them in the house for 10 days in keeping with a law that allows three strikes for dogs implicated in attacks or dog fights.
McClain, for his part, said he apologized and offered to pay for the vet and medical bills. According to the animal control experts, the incident was a run-of-the mill spat between dogs, McClain said.
“I don’t want to downplay it,” McClain said. “I don’t ever want anyone to get hurt, but the reality is it was an average tussle. I’m very sorry it happened. I’m always the first one to try to set things right.”
He said the animals wouldn’t have bitten Kenneth Schoen if he hadn’t tried to wrap his hands around their jaws to pull them off the Lab. Further, McClain asserted that the dogs were attempting to “correct” the Lab’s behavior, because it was straining at the leash and pulling Kenneth Schoen in toward the yard. If the pits were simply vicious, he said, the dogs would have more seriously injured the Lab.
“I hope the HOA gets educated about the dogs and their breed,” McClain said. “If I had two poodles or two Labradors and this happened, I guarantee this thing would be dropped.”
McClain runs a nonprofit network called The Little Red Dog that works to rescue pit bulls from shelters around Southern California. McClain and his wife keep in their home only their pet pit bulls -- technically American Staffordshire terriers, one of 13 breeds that fall under the pit bull umbrella classification, McClain said.
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| Dog bite injuries sustained by Kenneth Schoen. Credit: Anita Schoen |
The McClains organize like-minded dog lovers to find homes elsewhere for mostly pit bulls in danger of euthanization -- dog fighting is a huge problem in Riverside County, McClain said, and The Little Red Dog has rescued 200 of the animals since it incorporated as a nonprofit two years ago.
For her part, Anita Schoen believes the dogs are a threat to people and other animals in the neighborhood.
“I want more attention to this because these dogs should be removed from the neighborhood for the safety of children and dogs, even adults,” Anita Schoen said. “My dog who was attacked was very lucky. He also weighs 90 pounds, which I'm sure is why he is not dead.”
She collected witness statements and a statement from another neighbor that said McClain’s dogs rushed him, his wife and their dog in December.
McClain said the incident would go before the neighborhood homeowners’ association board July 8, and he plans to defend his animals.
(Lakeforest-ca Patch - June 17, 2013)
