Lab needs to be banished, but not destoryed

[Cane Corso]

Labrador banished but not destroyed

By KELLY NIX

Published: August 24, 2007


THE BLACK Lab that fatally mauled a TV anchorwoman’s Maltese in Pacific Grove will be banned for life from the city and must attend a behavior modification program, a hearing officer determined this week.


The dog was returned to its Southern California owners Thursday, according the P.G. police department.


The ruling followed a hearing last week at P.G. City Hall in which hearing officer Carmelita Garcia weighed whether the 8-year-old Labrador, Samson, should be destroyed for his deadly July 25 attack on Lulu, a Maltese owned by KION and KCBA TV anchorwoman Olga Ospina.


“I feel confident that, with plans in place to address the behavior of Samson, the possibility of another incident such as this one is highly unlikely,” Garcia said in her eight-page report.



Thorough report


In her decision, Garcia ordered Samson, who had been in quarantine at the SPCA animal shelter since the attack, to undergo a comprehensive evaluation by a Southern California animal behaviorist, and be entered in a behavior modification program.


Garcia also encouraged Samson’s owners, Donna Marie Bazan and her father, Donald Armstrong, to pay all veterinary costs Ospina incurred for Lulu and those associated with a bite she received to her left forearm in the attack.


At the Aug. 16 hearing, which was believed to be the first of its kind in the city, Armstrong offered to pay those bills. But there could also be other costs.


“It is strongly encouraged, should Ospina decide to get another dog,” Garcia noted, “the cost of the new dog and initial vaccinations are to be paid by Bazan.”


Ospina was walking Lulu on a leash when Samson leapt from a parked car and attacked the smaller dog. Lulu, who was treated at Santa Cruz Veterinary Hospital, survived for several days before dying from her injuries.


Kodiak, a German shepherd in the SUV with Samson, also leapt from the car, but Garcia determined it was unclear the extent of that dog’s role, if any, in the attack.


At the July 16 hearing, Salinas-based animal behaviorist Barbara De Groodt said she met with Samson and concluded she would have no problem returning the Lab to his owners after introducing her own dog, Barney, to Samson.


“De Groodt used her small, white terrier/poodle during the assessment,” Garcia noted, “and both dogs were nose-to-nose with no aggressive reaction from Samson.”


According to some of Bazan’s friends, who provided written statements, Samson had never posed a threat to their young children, either.


“The statements further describe how the children have all played with Samson without incident,” Garcia noted.


In an interview with Bazan, Garcia noted that she said Samson and Kodiak were excited the morning of the attack. A witness also said he saw two women pass by the SUV and that both dogs barked at them.


At the hearing, Ospina stated she heard nothing and the attack occurred without provocation. In her ruling, Garcia offered a possible reason for Samson and Kodiak’s behavior.


When the two large dogs were already agitated, “Ospina happened to walk by, and when she became alerted to the agitated dogs, she sped up her walk, pulling Lulu closer to her. Perhaps Ospina’s actions, although unintentional, compounded the already volatile situation and were the final acts that brought the dogs to the point of escaping and attacking.”


When Garcia asked Ospina if Lulu had ever exhibited any signs of aggression toward dogs or people, or had ever bitten anyone, “Ospina denied any such actions exhibited by Lulu,” Garcia noted in the ruling.


According to the police report after the incident, Bazan said, “Samson did not like little dogs and would react to small dogs by pulling at the leash toward them, but not apparently aggressively.”


When Bazan’s young son learned of the attack, he said it “must have been the black dog,” according to a police document. Bazan later attributed the comment to the fact Samson had always been “the barker of the two dogs,” Garcia noted.


After the mauling, Pacific Grove police deemed Samson “vicious,” a term used in a city ordinance when “there is an attack which results in property damage or in an injury to a person when such a person is conducting himself or herself peacefully and lawfully.”


However, Garcia determined Samson is not a “potentially dangerous dog or a vicious dog,” as defined in the California Food and Agriculture Code.


“The code is clear in that the criteria require such behavior deemed dangerous and/or vicious to have occurred on two separate occasions within the prior 36-month period,” Garcia noted.


And even though the state code defines a “potentially dangerous dog” as any dog which bites someone unprovoked, Samson couldn’t be held responsible for biting Ospina, Garcia said, since “Ospina stated she did not know which dog bit her.”


Garcia ruled Samson’s owners must meet with the dog behaviorist training Samson every 30 days for the first six months, then every 60 days for the following six months, for a total of one year.


Samson’s owners must also register the Lab with the animal control office in Rancho Palos Verdes, where they live, and adhere to additional requirements set forth in that city’s municipal code with regard to dangerous and vicious dogs, Garcia ruled.


Besides being banned from P.G. for life, with the recommendation Kodiak doesn’t return either, Garcia imposed other lifetime conditions.


Samson, when in public, must always wear a Halti head collar, an alternative to choke collars which makes it easier to control dogs, and be harnessed in a car while traveling. She recommended Kodiak adhere to the same conditions.


“Should the owners of Samson fail to follow any of the above noted conditions,” Garcia noted, “and should the owners miss one class or appointment, Samson shall be surrendered to the local animal control.”


Armstrong, who was in the vehicle with the dogs, but on his cell phone when the attack occurred, showed little emotion at the hearing.


In her ruling, Garcia recommended Bazan become the sole registered owner of Samson, but she did not indicate why.


Garcia, who was appointed as hearing officer by the city and who works for a local law firm, has been chair of the city’s Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance Advisory Committee since 2006, served on its traffic commission since 2001 and is involved in the P.G. Police Department Citizens Academy.


She also submitted an application, but was not selected, to fill the council seat that vacated when Dan Cort was appointed to complete Mayor Jim Costello’s term after his resignation.

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