June 22–29, 2000

hall monitor

Dog Day Afternoon

As a result of the growing furor over pit bulls and other vicious dogs terrorizing Philadelphians, City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller has formed the Vicious Dog Task Force, a collection of SPCA and U.S. Postal Service officials, Pit Bull Rescue, dog owners and bite victims.

The task force held its first meeting Monday, June 19, in City Hall, seeking solutions to what one task force member described as "a quality of life epidemic" — the explosion of dog bite cases in Philadelphia.

Task Force member Erik Hendricks, executive director of the Pennsylvania SPCA, says there are 250,000 potentially dangerous dogs in Philadelphia and is calling for a total ban on pit bulls in the city. Others, like task force member and pit bull owner Karen Morris, call the idea discriminatory, even likening the ban to Nazi genocide.

All task force members agree, however, that the main problem isn’t the dogs, but irresponsible owners who don’t provide adequate fencing, or simply allow their dogs to roam the neighborhood. They insist the answer is new laws and police powers, and strict enforcement of current animal laws.

The Vicious Dog Task Force is open to anyone who has ideas and solutions on how to cope with the vicious dog dilemma. The next task force meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 2, Room 319 in City Hall at 1 p.m.

—Daryl Gale