The Facts

A pit bull mauled a woman and left her with life-threatening injuries on September 8 on Larkin Street. Police apprehended the dog, which died after being restrained, and did not find its owner, according to Brad Hamilton at CBS News.

In response, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood introduced a dog-safety resolution that calls on city-funded shelters and supportive housing to keep pet registration and vaccination records and report attacks. It also calls for stable funding for dangerous-dog hearings, reports George Kelly at The San Francisco Standard.

The Context

San Francisco already investigates dogs that bite, lunge, or chase people. A hearing officer may order training, muzzling, or confinement, and city law requires a formally designated dangerous dog outside its enclosure to be muzzled and held on a short, heavy-duty chain under its owner’s direct control.

But City Hall let those hearings stop for ten months, creating a 66-case backlog, according to Jennifer Wadsworth at The San Francisco Standard.

The GrowSF Take

We don't think these reporting requirements will do anything to prevent dangerous-dog attacks. San Francisco should require owners to keep pit bulls on-leash and muzzled in public, before they attack.

That would require a change in state law. San Francisco’s dangerous-dog hearings address individual animals, but California prohibits breed-specific rules. The state's narrow spay/neuter and breeding exception does not let cities require muzzles for an entire breed.

San Francisco should ask state lawmakers to authorize breed-wide leash and muzzle requirements, so these precautions can apply to all pit bulls without a separate dangerous-dog hearing for each animal.