Santa Rosa council member looks to toughen city ordinance regulating aggressive animal attacks 

My plan going forward is to advocate for changes to the ordinance that would allow for accountability and justice,” she said. “It is my sincere hope that we put in place an ordinance that we don’t have to use.”

Fleming said she was appalled that the pit bull and shepherd mix dogs were immediately returned to their owner by the animal control officer right after the incident.

“My heart goes out to them,” Fleming said of the two families whose cats were mauled and killed in their own backyards on the night of Feb. 18. “I can’t imagine losing your pet that you consider a member of your family in such a vicious way.”

On Wednesday, the owner of the pair of dogs voluntarily agreed to designate the canines as “potentially dangerous” under a Santa Rosa city ordinance, an animal control official said.

That means the dogs will now have to stay indoors or in a secure enclosure in their owner’s yard. They’ll have to be muzzled and leashed and will have to wear a bright orange collar that says “potentially dangerous dog” when the owner takes them on walks.

In addition, there will be signs posted at the owner’s expense outside his home letting people know that potentially dangerous dogs live inside.

The owner will also have to pay a registration fee of $148 per year for each dog, and the designation will last for three years. The identity of the owner was not released by Sonoma County Animal Services.

Both dogs were also quarantined for rabies, as a precaution, for 10 days on Wednesday because one of the cat owners, Matt Malik, was bitten while trying to stop the dogs from attacking his cat. Santa Rosa has a contract with county animal control.

Some residents of the neighborhood in central Santa Rosa have been reeling ever since they learned of the dogs’ actions.

Lise Butier, who lives in the area where the dogs were roaming on Feb. 18, said she had to hide behind a car in a carport to fend off the dogs after one of them charged at her. She said she has filed a complaint with Animal Services.

Butier said she’d been walking on Grosse Avenue and noticed the unleashed dogs nearby. She said she turned around and began walking back the other way.

“As I was walking, I heard heavy breathing and panting from behind me. Then I heard the panting coming closer and closer to me. There was really nowhere to go,” she said. “There’s a carport there and I turned into the carport with a big SUV parked there. … I was thinking about getting on top of the car, but there was nothing to step on, so I just hid behind the car. I looked through the window of the car and saw the pit bull charging at me. I was freaking out thinking ‘Oh God, people are going to find me mauled and bloodied.’ ”

She said she kept going around the car saying, “It’s OK, just go home’ ” to the canines. Eventually they appeared to lose interest in her.

The incident and The Press Democrat story about it has led people to complain about Santa Rosa’s leash law. They are also sharing their own stories of pets, including two goats, that have been killed by aggressive dogs.

Many of the people in the Grace Tract neighborhood said they hadn’t seen the dogs running loose before, but according to county Animal Services Operations Manager Brian Whipple, the agency “did have a call of the dogs running loose in the past and there was an incident in a designated dog park, which was handled between the owners of the dogs involved.”

Both Whipple and Santa Rosa Assistant City Attorney Adam Abel said Animal Services Officer Andy O’Brien handled the case correctly, following the city code.

If the dogs had been acting viciously at the time he saw them, they might have been pepper sprayed and taken to a county facility.

Asked if it’s now safe to walk in the neighborhood, Whipple said, “Absolutely! We have done what we can do to make sure these dogs will be safe in their home and that the owner takes this seriously.”

In 2021, the county responded to 1,604 incidents involving animal bites, Whipple said. That amount is “fairly average; it can fluctuate year to year,” he added.

Pet owners aren’t always responsible about keeping their dogs inside or leashed, and it leads to tragedies, he said.

Under the Santa Rosa ordinance, after one incident in which an animal kills another and a person receives minor injuries, the animal is only considered “potentially dangerous” and not “vicious” until they’ve either killed twice or seriously injured a person.