San Francisco: In January 2001 33-year-old Diane Whipple was killed by her neighbors’ dogs. In June 2005 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish was killed by his family’s two dogs. Just last year, in May 2016, a young woman was almost killed by a dog in Washington Square Park. And there continue to be hundreds of dog attacks and dog bites in the city every year. Recently in unprovoked off-leash dog attacks, a woman standing outside her home was bitten and required 31 stitches, while a man in a different incident had his arm torn up so badly that it took 80 stitches to sew up his wounds.
And yet San Francisco Animal Care and Control, along with the police, still disregard the public's safety and refuse to enforce San Francisco’s perfectly common-sense leash law — chiefly due to the powerful lobby of irresponsible dog owners in the city. Here, even when an illegally off-leash dog attacks a San Francisco Park Ranger trying to do his duty and make a park safe for children gathering for a special event, the dog owners are only concerned in arguing about their dogs’ right to be off leash. No one even asks if the ranger is hurt or okay.
