Shirley and I are avid bikers. On one of our trips, a dog came running out of its owner's yard onto the county road and started chasing us. It was barking and nipping at my legs. This had happened so many times before that this time I lost my patience.
I stopped the bike, got off and grabbed a sawed-off hockey stick I carry in the brackets of my bike frame. The dog stood two feet in front of me. His teeth were bared; the hair stood up on his back; he growled viciously.
I waited for his lunge, gripping and re-gripping the stick.
Just then, the homeowner came racing out of the house and yelled, "Come here, Adreon. Poor boy. Get away from that guy." Then he screamed at me, "Don't you hit my dog. What's wrong with you anyway? That dog won't bite you."
Dogs are endowed with dozens of ways to win the love and protection of their human companions. When they are small they are warm and cuddly and humorously clumsy. Their lack of experience and wisdom makes them totally dependent on the humans around them. Their specialty is greeting a family member who is just coming in the door. They nearly twist themselves inside out wagging an enthusiastic hello. Dogs are capable of giving unconditional love. Their eyes show they trust their human companions completely. Unlike human beings, dogs are innocent; they are incapable of premeditated evil.
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Unfortunately, sometimes, these endearing characteristics so addle owners' brains they let their dogs become a threat to people or a menace to neighbors.
For example, when a dog owner goes to work in the morning, puts the dog outside, and it barks all day. Or when he leaves the dog outside and lets it bark all night. Or when he doesn't stop the dog from peeing on a neighbor's lawn, where ammonia in the dog's urine leaves big, round, dead spots. Or when he doesn't stop the dog from jumping on people or scratching cars. Or when he doesn't stop the dog from attacking the postman, the paper boy or anyone else who walks either to the door or on the road or sidewalk in front of the house.
A year ago, Dr. Stanley Coren, in his speech to the American Psychological Association, stated, "Dogs' mental abilities are close to a human child aged 2 to 2½ years."
In many cases, it appears to me that at some point in the raising of a dog, the dog's mental abilities transfer to their owners. I have proof of this.
One time when I confronted a dog owner for allowing his two German shepherds to menace my daughter, who was skating on the county road in front of his house, he told me, "I own 40 acres here. I'm not putting my dogs on the chain."
Another time I confronted a neighbor because her dog had bit my son when he rode by on his bike. She told me, "I kind of enjoy watching the dog go after people. Your son looked funny trying to get away."
Yet another time I was talking to a neighbor and he told me he saw someone walking on the road in front of his house at 2 a.m. "I turned the dogs loose after him," he said.
How many times do dogs bite people? It happens 4.7 million times per year, according to Beverly Hills lawyer Kenneth M. Phillips, a national expert on dog bite laws. Nearly 800,000 of these bites are serious enough to require medical attention. Bites to children make up more than half of these cases.
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I'll bet my kingdom not one irresponsible dog owner, whether their mental equivalency is that of a 2-year-old or not, will step forward to defend such behavior.
Joseph Legueri of Gilbert is a writer, retired educator and lifelong Iron Range resident.
