‘It looked like a murder scene.’ Why Ohio dog wardens want harsher penalties for attacks

Certain work stories haunt Jeremy Grant, the assistant chief dog warden in Licking County.

“It just looked like a murder scene,” Grant said, recounting the house where a little boy had been attacked by his uncle’s dog. Grant just cannot forget the sight of the child’s bloody handprints smeared on the wall of the house.

Hurt children are the worst part of the job, Grant said. But he can quickly rattle off other weird, dangerous and distasteful cases: hungry dogs devouring their deceased owners, sexual assault of a dog, or pulling a dog out of a truck cab where the driver had died by suicide, the trucker’s finger still on the gun trigger.

Grant, who has been a warden in two different counties for 11 years, carries a gun, taser and handcuffs and wears a vest. He’s been shot at twice in his career. “It’s not just the dogs you have to worry about. It’s the people.”I

In the fourth installment of USA Today Network Ohio’s powerful series “VICIOUS: An investigation into how Ohio laws fail thousands of dog attack victims,” reporter Laura Bischoff examines the stress and challenges dog wardens face because state laws governing dangerous laws are shockingly inadequate. Here is the article in its entirety:

Certain work stories haunt Jeremy Grant, the assistant chief dog warden in Licking County.

Licking County wardens take in about 750 stray dogs each year. In larger counties, such as Franklin next door to Licking, the wardens and shelter deal with 10,000 dogs each year.

Wardens respond to calls about dog problems and write tickets for lack of tags or letting dogs run loose. They also follow up with owners of dangerous dogs.

On a Monday morning in Newark, Grant knocks on the front door of a duplex where a “beware of dog” sign hangs in the front window.

Two dogs show their faces before owner Xavier Agin, 28, answers the door. Agin’s 3-year-old Akita-Huskie mix, Teddy, attacked an 11-year-old neighbor in April, chomping into the girl’s upper left arm.

“It came as a surprise. He’s never really been like that. He’s always been a people person,” Agin said of Teddy.

That night, Agin’s mom took Teddy for a walk on a leash and stopped to chat with the neighbor, Donelle Spohn, and her children. A Ring camera captured the lightning-fast attack.

Now Agin must muzzle the dog when off his property, post the warning sign and buy an annual dangerous dog tag.

On a recent visit to the neighborhood, Grant reminded Agin to get the tag or face a misdemeanor charge. Agin, who now takes care to cross the street when passing Spohn’s house when walking Teddy, bought the tag later that afternoon.

“I still have him. He’s not being put down. That’s the best outcome I could hope for,” Agin said.

Aggressive dogs: What does the law say?

In 2012, Ohio revamped its dog laws to move away from restrictions targeted at specific types of dogs, such as pit bulls. The current law focuses on the behavior of the dogs, not the breeds.

Aggressive dogs fall into three categories − nuisance, dangerous and vicious. The behavior must be unprovoked and documented. Here’s how it breaks down:

Nuisance: have acted in menacing way toward someone, such as chasing, growling or snapping.
Dangerous: have been convicted three times for running loose or have caused a non-serious injury to a person or killed another dog.
Vicious: have caused serious injury −permanent incapacity, disfigurement, maiming − or killed someone.

Owners of dangerous or vicious dogs face extra requirements, including leashing, tethering or keeping them in locked enclosures with tops while at home and muzzling and on a short chain-link leash when elsewhere. They have to post a warning sign as well, though the law is silent on what it must say, how big it is or where it’s posted.

Microchipping, spay or neutering, vaccinations and a dangerous dog registration are also required. A judge may order the owner of a dangerous dog to buy liability insurance; it’s required for owners of vicious dogs.

Fines for failure to register a dog or failure to confine or control a dog start at $25. Fines for subsequent offenses start at $75.

Once a dog has been categorized as dangerous, failure to confine or control fines escalate to $250 for a first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. Failure to control or confine a vicious dog can bring a fine of $1,000 on first offense and $5,000 on subsequent offenses.

Putting down a dog

Even in brutal, unprovoked attacks that leave people with permanent disfigurement, chronic pain or limb loss, euthanasia is not a given.

Judges have the discretion to order euthanasia of dangerous or vicious dogs after the first unprovoked attack. Often, it’s left up to the dog owner.

If a dog already deemed vicious, kills a second person, the judge must order euthanasia.

How Ohio dog wardens do their jobs

Every county has a dog warden, by state law. But some work under the sheriff, some under county commissioners. There are no uniform training standards for wardens. Some wardens are part-timers who earn a little more than minimum wage.

Some wardens carry guns, write tickets and arrest people. But others don’t exercise such law enforcement powers.

County auditors issue dog licenses. Local health departments take dog bite reports. Wardens issue citations to owners for violations such as loose dogs or unlicensed dogs. Nonprofit organizations, often the local humane society, investigates cases of animal cruelty or neglect − not the wardens.

There is no requirement for the health department to share info with the dog wardens or humane society. And the wardens don’t have to share with them either.

Local governments don’t have to post dog bite reports or dangerous dog registrations so that the public can easily find and search them. The USA TODAY Network Ohio obtained those reports via public records requests to multiple agencies.

Leaders of the Ohio County Dog Wardens Association have a wish list for state law changes:

Create a statewide public database of dangerous dog registrations and anyone convicted of felony level animal abuse.
Establish statewide training standards for wardens that include Ohio law, safety and animal behavior.
Clarify the police powers of dog wardens.
Increase the penalties for owners whose dogs cause serious injuries.
Require euthanasia of all dogs deemed vicious.
Provide state funding for dog shelters and require shelters to spay and neuter dogs before adopting them out to new owners.

Geauga County Chief Dog Warden Matt Granito said current Ohio law does more to protect the dog’s life, rather than protect the public.

“We’re tired of seeing these kids get torn up, and then just saying, well, we gotta wait. We gotta wait and when it gets loose again, we can do something,” he said. “We got to get them in court on the first bite and say ‘what are you going to do to fix this problem?’”

Franklin County Chief Dog Warden Kaye Persinger, whose shelter handles 10,000 dogs a year, said the criminal charges in dog attack cases should depend on the details, such as the severity of the injuries and what the owner knew about the dog’s behavior.

Wardens agree that some − but not all − aggressive dogs can be retrained, avoiding euthanasia.

“You can teach an old dog new tricks but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of time,” Persinger said. “Just like when we learn something new it takes time and consistency to teach them. Am I going to say every single dog that comes in, that may be extremely aggressive, can be reformed? No.”

Laura A. Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

‘It looked like a murder scene.’ Why Ohio dog wardens want harsher penalties for attacks

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