Five pit bulls were euthanized during the last week of January at the Charlottesville SPCA. The dogs would only respond to their owner, who had just been arrested for murder in connection with a Federal drug charge. “Not only were they trying to kill other dogs,” says SPCA spokeswoman Carolyn Foreman, “but they were trying to kill us, too.”
The dogs’ hostility was a sure sign of serious mistreatment, says shelter manager Beth McPhee. “It takes an unspeakable amount of abuse to get this way,” she says. Foreman and McPhee both knew the dogs had been raised to fight, and for the canines, it was a matter of kill or be killed.
Spearheading the effort to eliminate dogfighting, Delegate Rob Bell brought a strict animal cruelty bill before the General Assembly on January 21. If approved, House Bill 2689 will make it a felony to promote, possess, transport, sell or train dogs for fighting.
“As it stands now,” says Bell, “the law is not preventative, and even harder to prosecute.” But until Governor Mark Warner signs on the dotted line, McPhee and Foreman continue to worry about the fighting dog’s plight.
“The biggest problem is that the dog fighting ring is so underground,” says Foreman, who testified in favor of Bell’s bill three weeks ago.
“We see the after-effects and the injured dogs, but all the horror stories we hear, without solid proof, are nothing more than hearsay,” she says.
Sure, an aggressive dog that arrives at the shelter wounded and scarred may have been hit by a car. But McPhee has her doubts. “Household pets just don’t look and act this way, period,” she says.
Fueling McPhee’s skepticism is the money behind dog fighting. It’s said to be a very lucrative business—not only in bookmaking but in the selling and breeding of the animals, too. Catching owners in the act is a constant challenge, to say the least.
“We’ll get a dispatched call about a pit bull dog fight five minutes away,” says Officer Bob Durrer, who for the past 21 years has been an animal control agent for the City, “and by the time we get there, there are dogs, and there might be people, but there’s no fight going on.”
Under the present dog fighting law, an undercover officer must prove not only that a dogfight took place, but also that bets were placed and money changed hands. This outdated legislation is no longer enough. Bell, like McPhee and Foreman, sees the new bill as a necessary preventative measure—save the dogs before they get into the ring.
“With this bill we can prosecute without ever physically going to the fight,” says Bell, offering the key element to his more workable law.
The breeds presently taking all the heat are pit bulls and Rottweilers. As Foreman points out, however, even a French Poodle, if abused long enough, will become uncontrollably aggressive, too.
“The dogs being trained to fight are being fed steroids and gunpowder,” says McPhee. “They’re being hung by their jowls, being allowed to eat a few bites then pulled away from their food by their legs. Their ears and tails are cropped to nubs. They’re forced to carry logging chains around their necks to build muscle.” And the abused dogs that don’t make the cut end up on a shelter doorstep every time.
McPhee and Foreman currently have at the shelter five pit bulls that might or might not have been abused, not counting the five they were forced to euthanize recently. They don’t blame the dogs, though. The responsibility for their condition falls strictly on the owners’ shoulders. “Man’s best friend,” says Foreman, “ultimately goes to his death.”
McPhee declined to comment in detail on the history of the five dogs recently put to sleep so as not to interfere with the ongoing police investigation into the owner. In most cases of dog fighting, owners aren’t caught committing dog abuse—McPhee and Foreman say the dogs are uncovered after a sting operation.
“Nine times out of 10 the police are going in after drugs and guns,” says McPhee. “There seems to be a direct link between the drug and criminal element and the dog-fighting problem.”
But until Bell’s bill is put into place, which could be as early as July 1, Foreman fears the numbers of abused dogs she sees daily will only grow.
“We have seen confiscated videotapes of these dogfights,” says Foreman, “and there are children in the audience. A lack of compassion begins at an early age, you know.”
—Kathryn E. Goodson
Peace of their heart
Council supports anti-war resolution
Geopolitical debates rarely play out in City Hall, but recently the most popular issue before Council has been a proposed resolution opposing a pre-emptive military attack by the United States on Iraq. Council approved the resolution 4 to 1 during its regular meeting on Monday, February 3, but not without a windy public hearing.
Mayor Maurice Cox extended the usual public comment period to accommodate people waiting in the aisles to speak before Council. They spoke. A lot.
Cox repeatedly asked people to keep their comments under three minutes. Very few complied, however, preferring instead to orate as if they were addressing the United Nations.
Several opponents of the resolution, including attorney Bob Hodus and a clique of local Republicans, said the debate belongs to Federal officials, not City Councilors; speakers from the Center for Peace and Justice, which drafted the resolution, said that with America on the brink of war, everyone needs to voice his conscience. According to Council records, 14 speakers favored the resolution, while eight opposed. Both sides fervently applauded like-minded sentiments, no matter how many times a particular point was repeated.
As it has in the national arena, the war debate inverted the political status quo in Council chambers. Conservatives called for dramatic government action, while liberals pleaded for restraint and warned of unforeseen consequences.
“I don’t want to go home tonight knowing my local representatives are a bunch of cowards,” said one man opposing the resolution, ignoring a shower of boos and hisses from peace activists.
A woman supporting the resolution told Council she believed America “should slow down and be careful.”
Each Councilor, too, resisted the edict to be brief as they expressed their sentiments about U.S. foreign policy. Only Schilling––alone among his peers in opposing the resolution––was succinct. He said it was inappropriate to debate war while the nation “is still mourning the space shuttle tragedy.”
At long (and I mean long) last, Council passed the resolution, which officially opposes “a pre-emptive military attack on Iraq unless it is demonstrated that Iraq poses a real and imminent threat to the security and safety of the United States.”
Council returned to familiar local territory at the end of the February 3 meeting when it approved a study that will examine traffic solutions at the Route 29 /Hydraulic Road intersection. Most of the $40,000 study will be funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation, with the local Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) pitching in $10,000.
Last fall, the Mayor pushed for a larger study, expecting funding from VDOT, UVA, the City and County, as well as the developers of the Sperry property at the corner of Hydraulic and Route 29, where a 1.7 million square-foot shopping center is in the works. The funds didn’t come through, however, so this study “will not take the place of a fully funded study,” but “it will demonstrate that further study is worth the investment,” according to City documents.
While this may not be good news for critics who say Council spends too much money studying problems and ways to study problems, this project marks a significant change in local relations with the State. In this study, VDOT officials will work under the direction of local and regional planning staff. “It’s unheard of,” says TJPDC Director Harrison Rue. “The State is recognizing that we can come together as a community and make transportation decisions. They want to hear what we have to say.”–– John Borgmeyer
Free to grow
Supes approve 30 percent increase in school numbers
Despite the ever-present worry about the fallout from proposed personal property tax hikes and decreased revenue for programs in Albemarle County, it wasn’t all rain clouds at the Board of County Supervisors meeting on February 5. As further proof that the fingers of local population growth are spreading deeper into the County, Free Union Country School applied for, and received by unanimous vote, approval for 30 percent growth in students and faculty.
At the proposed 125 students and faculty, the country school will now be able to grow larger than most private schools in rural Albemarle. While a positive measure for the school, the additional growth is a double-edged sword for the surrounding area.
Jay Fennell, development co-coordinator and second- and third-grade teacher at the school, is also a longtime resident of Free Union. “I’ve disappointedly watched the growth here increase,” he says. “The roads alone cannot bear any more traffic.”
But he faces the problem of growth with some equanimity. After all, without it new opportunities in the area would never have arisen. “When I was younger, I thought that professionally, I would have to move,” says Fennell. “Now, I’d never think that.”
Free Union Country School, now in its 20th year, has to grow with times, says Fennell.
“If we can reach the minimum number of 100 students,” he says, “it will stabilize us financially.” It will also aid in the expansion of a two-storey, 3,000 square-foot activity building with offices, a 1,800 square-foot pre-school building and playground and 12 new parking spaces.
Three years ago, a consultant gave Fennell and other school officials a figure of 105 students as the baseline needed to achieve financial security and viability for the school. “In terms of expense and income,” says Fennell, “we are not completely tuition-driven.”
The added increase in students will certainly help balance out the numbers, though. With a yearly tuition of $7,500 per student, 15 new students will mean added revenues of $112,500. Twenty extra students boost the figure to $150,000 annually. Judging from historical demand, Free Union Country shouldn’t have trouble adding to its student roster. Within its first decade, enrollment had increased to 55 students from 35. In 1999, the school’s population had nearly doubled to 90.
In other County news: Ron Huber, Charlottesville Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, announced his withdrawal from the campaign for Commonwealth’s Attorney of Albemarle County. He cited personal and professional reasons in his February 5 announcement and pressed County residents to keep up the good fight.
“I encourage the people of Albemarle and the County Police officers to join me in continuing to offer suggestions to maintain a positive dialogue with [County Commonwealth’s Attorney] Jim Camblos to effect those changes,” he said.
—Kathryn E. Goodson