Dog-bite penalties
may get sharper

A City Council bill would
go after owners for attacks

Brandi Pontin of Malaekahana had to undergo eight surgeries after a neighbor's dog jumped her fence, fought with her dog and then bit off the tip of her finger more than two years ago.

Trying to get justice after the attack was nearly as painful as the dog bite itself, said her husband, Duke, who started pushing to strengthen Honolulu's dangerous-dog ordinance.

"I was appalled at the dog-bite law and the judicial system," Pontin said. "(The law) had no deterrent. It had no judicial backing or caring."

The City Council's Public Safety Committee takes a final look today at the bill that:

Councilman Gary Okino, committee chairman, said it's time the law got tougher on owners who can't control their dogs. "I think the (current) penalties are not stiff enough to discourage owners of these dangerous dogs," Okino said.

Both Okino and Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, who worked with Pontin and others on the bill, said they believe that the problem runs deeper than the actual cases reported.

"There are seniors, women, children who have been victims, and we need to make sure that people are responsible for their pets," Dela Cruz said.

The Hawaiian Humane Society, the primary investigating agency in dangerous-dog cases since the ordinance went into effect on July 1, 2001, has said 25 citations were issued under the law last year to 19 defendants. The citations resulted in eight people being sentenced to an average $200 fine.

Cathy Goeggel of Animal Rights Hawaii said the onus shouldn't be only on the dog, but on the owners as well.

She doesn't like a section in the bill that would require dogs to be tied up on the owners property at all times, because tying up a dog makes the animal more aggressive.

Duke Pontin said people need only read news accounts like the recent attack of a 3-year-old Honokai Hale boy by one or more of the family's five Rottweilers to know that the current dangerous dog ordinance isn't working.

While the judge ordered restitution in the case involving Pontin's wife, Pontin said he feels the judicial system as a whole doesn't take dog-bite cases seriously.

"It's a big deal," the marine salvage operator said. "I've had to recover headless people, and I was never so distraught as when I saw my wife's finger missing."