Orange dog-bite rules don’t have much teeth, audit says
Orange County Animal Services’ dangerous-dog rules are all bark and no bite, an audit says.
The agency’s dangerous-dog division has failed to adequately investigate reported dog bites and has not always held dog owners accountable for the behavior of their animals, a newly released audit of the division concluded.
Several dogs bit other people after a bite investigation was halted, the audit alleged.
The audit also found that many owners had been cited multiple times for the same dogs but never paid the fines — without penalty.
One owner had eight cases with unpaid fees totaling $3,130 between 2008 and 2017.
Another had six with unpaid fees totaling $4,105 for citations dating back to 2009.
Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond’s examiners reviewed Animal Services records from January 2010 though December 2015 — including 13,000 bite complaints — as part of a compliance audit into the agency’s operations.
Animal Services is reviewing
the findings and the operational changes suggested by auditors, but the division’s longtime director Dil Luther defended the agency’s efforts.
“I think we’re pretty thorough on this stuff,” he said of dog-bite cases.
Auditors found 107 incidents that classified a bite as “severe.”
They then focused a deeper analysis on a sample of eight bite complaints and found four instances in which a dog had bitten someone else after the first victim or a victim’s parent asked Animal Services to forgo a dangerous-dog investigation.
One dog had bitten a 5-year-old in the face, a wound that required seven stitches.
Another dog bit three different people over a period of three years. One bite required stitches, another staples.
“Allowing victims or their guardians to determine whether a dangerous dog investigation is stopped could result in additional injuries to members of the public,” the audit concluded. “The Division should review all available facts to conclude whether the investigation supports a dangerous dog declaration.”
Luther said it’s difficult to proceed with a dangerous dog investigation without a victim or witness willing to testify about the dog’s behavior — because the determination is based on a dog’s behavior, not its breed.
If a victim is unwilling to cooperate “then we don't have a witness and if we don’t have a witness, then we don’t have a case,” he said. “Otherwise it’s just hearsay and speculation we’ve got.”
Auditors pointed out they focused on the 107 bites that Animal Services staff had classified as “severe” in the agency’s database, but another 405 bite complaints included victim-treatment descriptions with the words “surgery” and/or “stitches” — which could possibly have been used to label the biting canine as a “dangerous dog.”
“All reported instances of a potentially dangerous dog that appear to meet the criteria for a dangerous dog classification should be investigated,” the audit said.
Luther said the agency might need to tweak the nomenclature it uses when logging a bite complaint into its database and describing injuries caused by a dog, but he insisted they have focused on cases that meet the criteria in county policies.
Orange County code says a dangerous dog is one that “has aggressively bitten, attacked or endangered or has inflicted severe injury on a human being on public or private property, including the owner's property other than in defense of the owner … or in response to an action of the person injured or attacked.” The code defines a severe injury as “… any physical injury to a human being or animal that results in broken bones, multiple/repeated bite punctures, disfiguring lacerations or injuries requiring sutures or reconstructive surgery.”
If a dog is deemed dangerous, the owner must surrender the animal or stick to tougher rules to keep it.
Most require more secure housing and restraints for the dog. For instance, it must be leashed and muzzled when walked.
The dog also must have permanent identification — such as a tattoo on the inside thigh or implanted computer chip. And it must wear a tag showing its rabies vaccination is current.
Owners also must complete the county’s “responsible pet ownership class.”
But the audit noted Animal Services often could not provide documentation to show that owners of dangerous dog owners had completed the class. The agency also failed to issue citations to the owners who didn’t take the class.
Luther said the agency hasn’t required the owner of a dog determined to be dangerous to take the county class if they gave up the animal. “But we will now,” he said.
Luther said the agency will try to work with the clerk of courts to better track its dangerous-dog cases.
In their report, auditors said Animal Services must investigate and track incidents involving dangerous dogs.
“If dangerous dogs are not adequately investigated and monitored, additional injuries could result to unsuspecting members of the public,” the report said. shudak@orlando sentinel.com or 407-650-6361.