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Rexann Dubiel has lost her father, her grandmother. She's been divorced twice. Woman recalls pit
bull mauling her dogBy Lisa Asato
Star-BulletinBut that pain doesn't compare to the loss of her 9-year-old terrier Gutzie to an attack by a stray pit bull.
"The anguish, the pain I felt is the worst pain I've ever felt," said Dubiel, a third-grade teacher at Sunset Beach Elementary School.
Yesterday, Dubiel told her story to a joint hearing of the Senate Agriculture and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs committees. She and nine others submitted testimony to support Senate bill 643, which would authorize the four counties to enact and enforce ordinances relating to dangerous dogs, defined as dogs that attack, injure or kill a person or domestic animal.
As it stands now, it is unclear whether state law would preempt county ordinances. This bill would clarify that, city Corporation Counsel David Arakawa wrote in his testimony.
Hawaii and Maui counties have dangerous dog laws. And a Honolulu law, effective July 1, would penalize owners of dangerous dogs with fines up to $2,000 and 30 days in jail.
State law calls for a $20 fine.
Committee members unanimously passed the bill, which now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Fellow supporter Shannon Wood said, "This bill isn't perfect, but it's a big step in the right direction that people can't allow their dogs to run loose."
Dubiel's also asking people who want to share stories of dog attacks to email her at dangerousdogshawaii@hotmail.com. She will forward the stories to lawmakers, she said.
"(Having) a pet -- a dog -- it's a relationship that is unlike a human relationship because it's unconditional," Dubiel said. "There's no compromise, there's no argument, there's no fighting. It's always about love."
Three days before Christmas last year a red, brindle pit bull mauled her 24-pound black terrier under her North Shore home. Neighbors witnessed the attack and tried to help, said Dubiel, who wasn't home at the time.
When she found Gutzie three hours later, her canine tooth had been pulled out of its socket, she had "a gaping wound on her left hip, bites on the inside of her thighs and blood behind her right eye."
But the hardest part of the ordeal was seeing Gutzie at the Animal Emergency Clinic in Waipahu the next day. She had had surgery the night before and lay warmed by a heat lamp with an intravenous tube in her paw, Dubiel said, crying at the memory.
"She didn't lift her head," Dubiel recalled. "I tried to feed her water with a syringe but it was just leaking out. She wasn't interested in eating ham. Her eyes were glazed, her mouth was open. ... I just kept talking to her, telling her everything was OK, that I was there."
Gutzie died that morning.
When Dubiel brought Gutzie home for burial, her 19-year-old son was digging a grave in the garden.
"He loved her like I did," Dubiel said. The two wrote farewell notes to Gutzie and laid them on top of her. "My son sat on the edge of the hole and stroked her ear and face. We did that for about one hour. We cut anthuriums from the garden, put them on her body, and we buried her."
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