Dogs Rule The Streets
BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
Mounting complaints of free-roaming dogs around Bellevue has some citizens calling for more strident enforcement claiming reckless owners are disturbing the sanctity and safety of those roaming the bike path, canyons, streets and their own yards.
A number of residents recounted harrowing details of encounters with unsociable, and even dangerous dogs, and uncivilized owners.
Janel Brown, a Bellevue resident for 14 years,.recounted a particularly disturbing scene that unfolded while she and
her husband were walking their dogs around town when an unleashed dog accosted theirs. A deer was wandering nearby and distracted the dog, which ran down the deer.
“That deer wasn’t even dead yet when Fish and Game got here,” Brown said. “They had to take it back up the hill and shoot it because it was ripped up. It was just lying there dying.”
Resident Kath Swanson has nightly videos from her security cameras of owners letting their unleashed dogs do what they want on her property and never pick it up.
Swanson likewise spoke of the aggression and lack of respect that these encounters often display.
“I have the pictures on camera. The dog came right into my step and the owner was out in the intersection. I said, ‘Why do you not hang on to your leash?’ She goes, ‘It has a leash!’ I say, ‘Yeah, and it’s right here on my front step.’ She yells, ‘Oh, you stupid old woman!’ I kept telling the dog, get out of here! You know, and it’s a nice dog. It’s not the dog’s problem. It’s the owners.”
Many residents said they have become so traumatized by unleashed dogs charging them and their own leashed dogs that they have begun strategizing when, or even whether, to go for a walk.
Brown said that “It’s not only aggressive dogs with their owners, off leash on walks, but, in general, unleashed and unattended dogs running rampant across the city. It’s all the time.
“Even tonight, taking our dogs around the school about a block away, I saw two dogs just running down the road. Luckily, they were running down the crossroad, but there were no people with them. You see this every day.”
Some reported they are carrying citronella spray, bear mace, sticks, or even baseball bats for protection, simply to take walks with or without their own dogs.
Of course, it’s not the unleashed dogs themselves, but those dogs’ owners who choose to ignore the leash law, let their animals do as they please. Sometimes tempers flare, patience is exhausted, and misunderstandings between neighbors are had.
Bellevue Marshal Kirtus Gaston oversees the office where the calls come in. The Marshal’s Office is precisely where to report such incidents, he said. Most calls can be remedied with a visit to the offending owner..
“The biggest thing is talking to the people when it happens, because some people don’t understand. A lot of people think that they have better control of their animals than what they actually do.”
Mayor Christine Giordani explained that she had not heard of many reports but that there’s a recently added blue button on Bellevue’s website where you can report any incident.
According to Bellevue City Code §5-3-3-1, it is unlawful for any person to allow a dog to roam on private property without permission, even if the dog is on a leash. (https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/bellevueid/latest/bellevue_id/0-0-0-700) This means that dogs must be under control at all times and are not permitted to trespass onto private properties, regardless of whether they are leashed.
In §5-3B-1, a dog may be declared “potentially dangerous” if it displays behavior posing a threat to public safety. Unprovoked attacks, aggressive behavior toward humans or other animals, this is a dangerous area for all involved and constrained only by the restraint of the person or animal being attacked. No one wants to shoot a dog, but it could happen.
The residents we spoke to seem to think that unleashed dogs running amok is at an all-time high, and that it has been going on for years.
Leashed dogs are certainly not bereft of wild moments. When being walked, at times they behave erratically, snarl or even attack. However, being on a leash, the dogs are under ‘direct physical control’ and this is where the law pops in.
Control is paramount in how dogs are able to function in society. Many believe their own dogs to be under strict verbal command control, which means saying “come,” “sit,” “heel,” etc., and the dog obeys immediately. There’s also electronic control (using remote devices), containment (fences), and tethered stationary control (tied to a post or fixed point).
Marshal Gaston urges all incidents reported immediately; however, “It would kind of depend on the specific area on what agency to call, but if they call our non-emergency dispatch number, our dispatchers are absolutely outstanding on getting the information that’s needed so they can determine who needs to go out, if it’s city, county, and vice versa.”
Brown shared an experience during a canyon walk.
“We had one incident at Slaughterhouse. Another pit bull. We saw it and went clear on the other trail so as not to encounter it. As we were getting closer, probably a quarter of a mile away, the dog saw us and came bounding through the snow and sagebrush to go after our dogs. My girl at that point snapped her leash, which is one of the heavy-duty double nylon leashes and got in front of our other dogs. That dog did not make contact with our dogs because my girl wasn’t gonna have it.”
Jamie Bridge has stories upon stories with the same lack of accountability or respect from a dog owner during a snarling attack. I yelled, “Control your dog!” and the guy said to me, “Go back to where you came from, Portland or wherever. I was born and raised here. I said, You go back to where you came from!”
So, he started screaming obscenities at me. I’ve had other people whose dogs have gotten out who then start screaming at me. One time a very large German shepherd came at us, and the problem is, my dogs are really nice, but one will protect me at all costs. I was really scared, and the guy just kept screaming at me that he was already going to hell, so he didn’t know what he should do about it, so I’m just like, okay, but get your dog under control.
“There’s some weird stuff that goes on on the bike path.”
Non-Emergency Phone Number: (208) 578-3831
https://bellevueidaho.gov/ (Blue button-top right: Report an Issue)
