Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]All... Just finished reading everyone's comments; thanks for the feedback. We *did* approach legal counsel about this issue, complete with the eyewitness accounts of the dogs stalking kids. The response we received was that we would have better success going through proper channels with the animal control board; if not satisfied, then escalate the issue through the upper levels of county management; if not satisfied, then splash the whole thing to the media [both print and broadcast], complete with the document and photos I had taken. As long as the dogs are gone, I'm not going to follow through with this entire chain of events, preferring to keep it as my secret weapon for when this happens again to me or another family in the neighborhood. Why the tepid legal recommendation? Because we are lacking photo and/or video evidence, and since no child has *yet* been injured, any eye witness account is viewed by the animal control board as biased interpretation from a hostile neighbor. I'd like to point out that I'm the only adult bitten at this point, my injury was hardly worth mentioning and I was not the focus of the attack; my dog was [this is how it would be interpreted by the animal control board as described to me by the responding animal control officer]. Some other background info to consider: - - I briefly met the owner of the Rotties on Friday when I identified the dogs. He is a middle-aged military medical doctor and could be *any* of us here on the LUG; he is educated, intelligent, speaks well and appears to possess reasonably good social skills [except for keeping the Rotties, naturally]. He is the sole provider for his family and this works to my advantage, because he is afraid of the fines I have winging his way. - - His wife is confined to a wheelchair, due to cancer. - - He has SEVEN kids, none of whom have had ANY problem with the Rotties. This represents a *significant* obstacle in the court room, as one of the other victims discovered last month when her case went before the court. She was stunned when the wife [not the owner himself] showed up in her wheelchair, complete with ALL seven kids AND the two Rotties in tow [the judge had Rotties removed from the proceedings]. Every aspect of her case was refuted by the wife and the judge appeared to side with the Rottie owner, at one point asking the victim how she could describe the attack upon her dog as being vicious when there was no damage to her dog. She was asked, "Was your dog being gummed to death?" She has not yet received notice of what the findings were of her case, and all of this was news to the animal control officer I have been dealing with. As I said before: I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, which is *VERY* liberal and filled with lawyers. Even though Cindy and I make a comfortable income, own Leicas [back on topic] and live in a standalone house, we are close to the bottom of the food chain here in Montgomery County and I have to take that into consideration with everything I do in this case. I know with the dogs being removed by the rescue service, the problem is just being moved to another neighborhood; that aspect is out of my control and I am not going to challenge it. I can only hope the new environment is better suited to the dogs and that they have better owners. Anyway, enough. I've dealt with all of this very intensely for the past 8 days, and I'm finished with the subject for now. I'm going out to take photos with my Leicas! /Mitch Zeissler - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html