Dangerous-dog bill too lenient to victim's kin

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

BY GREG EDWARDS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 2, 2006


A bill aimed at controlling dangerous dogs proved gnarly for its sponsor yesterday.

A House committee endorsed, 20-2, a bill by Del. Robert D. Orrock Sr., R-Caroline, that would require Virginia localities to regulate dangerous and vicious dogs.

But the victory came without the support of the family of Dorothy Sullivan, the 82-year-old Spotsylvania County woman whose death after a mauling by pit bulls helped inspire the legislation.

Larry Just, Sullivan's son-in-law, spoke against Orrock's bill because it doesn't carry the harsher criminal penalties of a similar bill, sponsored by Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, which has already passed the full Senate. Houck's bill would make violation of a dangerous-dog law a felony, while Orrock's bill would make a violation a misdemeanor.

Just said the misdemeanor provision in Orrock's bill is "a slap in the face" to victims of dangerous dogs. Just's mother-in-law was killed by three loose-running pit bulls. The dogs' owner, Deanna H. Large, 37, was found guilty in December of involuntary manslaughter by a Spotsylvania County jury and will be sentenced this month.

Orrock said the purpose of his bill would be to prevent incidents such as Sullivan's mauling before they happen. He said he, too, doesn't believe a misdemeanor penalty is enough for violating the proposed law. But he said it would have been politically impossible to have gotten a felony penalty approved by the House committee.

Other than the penalty, Orrock's bill provides the same kind of regulation as Houck's. The House Courts of Justice Committee will need to decide whether it will accept the felony provisions in Houck's bill, Orrock said.

Orrock's bill includes provisions that would:

give any law-enforcement officer the power to petition to have a dog declared dangerous by a court; create a Virginia Dangerous Dog registry; provide for criminal penalties should violation of the law result in a person's serious injury or disfigurement; impose penalties from the first dog-bite incident, rather than after the second, as is the case under Virginia common law;prohibit the sale or transfer of dangerous dogs or their importation into Virginia; and require owners of dangerous dogs to carry $300,000 in insurance or surety bond.