Pitbulls, lawn art, & memory

[from Melanie Marshall]

My friend Juve* grew up in Petworth. He and his wife gave me a ride to work one morning and told me the funniest story about a piece of sculpture (lawn art?) at the corner of 5th and Taylor Streets:

Juve was friends with the Marcus* family who lived in the house at 5th and Taylor. One year, Mr. Marcus bought an ornamental deer for the front lawn. The boys, Juve and Barry*, thought the deer was weird as (insert four-letter word here). Teasing the dad about the deer became routine - but Mr. Marcus kept it 'cause he liked it, of course! When Barry lost his dad, even though he still didn't like the thing any better, he kept the deer on the front lawn in his dad's memory. It was such a good reminder to him.

Years passed and Barry got a dog, a pit bull. It drew the attention of a young kid, Jondel*, in the neighborhood who had a pit bull too. Jondel took to coming around wanting to stage a fight between the two dogs. Buddy*, however, was not a fight dog and even though Barry told him "No," time after time, Jondel still kept coming by.

One day, hoping to force a fight between the dogs, Jondel brought his dog by again. A minor confrontation broke out between Barry and Jondel. Buddy was inside and Barry kept him there. Dissatisfied with Barry's refusal to let Buddy out to fight, Jondel released his hound! The dog went right to the deer on the lawn and lunged. It went for the side of the deer's neck and chomped down for the kill, what an easy win!

With a pitiful yelp, the once vicious dog collapsed! Jondel was as dumbfounded as his dog. Neither of them knew the weird as (insert four-letter word here) deer was made of metal. Juve and Barry laughed for hours that day and they both learned to like the little deer there on the lawn at 5th and Taylor Streets, NW.

* Names have been changed to protect anonymity.

Comments

[Adam]

DC's dog law is online (by a third party; hopefully accurate) here:

http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/stusdc8_1801_13.htm

Seems like there's a lot of room in there to impound dangerous and even threatening dogs.

DC-adopted dogs are subject to more "voluntary" requirements, including fencing and supervision rules.

However, there's threatening and there's threatening. One pitbull on NH -- maybe already referred to here -- often runs off its porch and bounds down the sidewalk toward me when I walk my dog. At first, I felt very threatened. But it turns out the dog is extremely friendly.

At other times, I've been warned by someone walking a pitbull that their dog would "kill" my dog if given the chance. Another time, a dog actually broke through my backyard fence to wound my dog. Now that's threatening!

Fence or no fence, leash or no leash, owners who knowingly possess aggressive dogs are the danger, not so much the dogs.

[amy j]

Unfortunately not much can be done. My neighbor has a pretty rowdy pitbull and when I called the DC humane society about my options (after talking with the owners who suggested spraying their dog with water b/c its just a dumb dog and won't do me any harm.). The person I spoke with informed me of DC's three bite law. After the first bite the dog is taken away and put in solitary for 10 days (not like that won't make the dog angrier) and it is not until the 3rd bite that they will take the dog away indefinitely. I'm not sure if the dog bites you three times in one instance if that counts as three bites or if it has to be three separate occurances but a dog can do a lot of damage before the authorities can be called in. There are no fence requirements for dogs in the city as well.

[Bill]

Yeah, my wife and I give that dog (at NH and Taylor) a wide berth. Seems like it could jump the fence if it chose to one day.

[Markus]

So how many people have had incidents with the crazy white pit bull at NH and Taylor who hides in the basement stairs and then charges pedestrians until he runs head first into the fence, inches away from whoever is innocently walking by "his/her" house?

I know I've been charged twice and a neighbor has been charged once. Something needs to be done about that dog before something really tragic happens.

[John]

We walk our (gentle) dog by that deer every day. I will now look at it as a sort of guardian spirit, a protector of all the meek pets of Petworth.

Thanks for the story!