is this dog a danger to society?

[drivingtenacity]

This is ridiculous.
It's almost impossible to stop a dog from ever escaping, at least once in it's lifetime, and the one time my Zena escaped (one of Billy's friends actually opened the door and let her out in the front yard while I was in the bathroom) she was so excited she set off at a full run. Maybe Rolo was just feeling happy and playful?
It seems that this woman is unjustly afraid of large dogs, as many people are.
Also, I find it odd that all the neighbors are testifying about how dangerous a dog with no history of aggression is. Sounds like neighborhood politics. Either Rolo's person is the neighborhood 'black sheep' or the woman who got 'bit' has been exaggerating the incident to the other neighbors.
I'm insensed at the injustice of this situation. Poor Rolo.

 

[l_l_a]

Another thing that is simply awful is that we have heard that in some jurisdictions (not necessarily in the one where this court case is taking place), that some judges will intentionally drag out these dangerous-dog court cases for months or longer so the dogs will stay quarantined for a long, long time and develop psychological problems. This is intentional, so that the owner eventually will voluntarily put down their dog to end its suffering. this way the courts are not responsible for either letting the dog go, or for putting the dog down! isn't that sick?? that is another reason why the owner is trying to push for her dog's court case to happen sometime in the near future, already he's been in the cage for 4 months. A shelter volunteer I talked to, said that she had seen a dog incarcerated for 4 years because that is how long that particular dog's court case dragged out! This is clearly animal abuse and must be stopped, and one way is through public pressure which is why I think the owner is doing a good job of campaigning publicly.

 

[l_l_a]

Latest on the story of Rolo the german shepherd:

The trial is Jan 11. That's this friday. The online petition so far has over 2000 signatures. http://www.rolodog.com

There's been more local media publicity last week - TV news channels, and morning radio talk show. A couple days ago one of the morning radio talk show hosts actually went to see Rolo, along with two police K-9 officers. They visited the dog in the shelter that he's been quarantined in for the last 5 months. You can listen to the podcast here http://khow.com/pages/boyles.html (dunno how long the podcast will stay on this page though)

They interacted with him and observed his demeanor. They all say that Rolo is not aggressive, even after 5 months in quarantine and isolation he was completely friendly to them (and they are strangers) and didn't even show resource guarding when they took away something he was playing with. How many average pet dogs are that "good"?? The police K-9 officers even said they would recommend him for search and rescue training or narcotics detection training if the dog couldn't go back to the owner.

The experts (and it doesn't get anymore expert than police K-9 handlers when it comes to dog aggression) obviously say that Rolo is not a danger to society and shouldn't be put down. We will see what the court rules later this week. I really hope the outcome is fair. We started picketing again last week and will be doing so everyday this week. "Dangerous dog" laws have gone awry in so many cases, we must fight back for common sense.