BERLIN– Following a dog attack last month, police and animal control said no new incidents have occurred.
An off-leash dog scratched Berlin resident Pam Hay on Saturday, Aug. 2, and bit her 3-year-old Cairn terrier Lulu while on a walk near downtown Berlin. After filing a police report, Hay took Lulu to a veterinarian’s emergency room in Salisbury where doctors treated her for puncture wounds.
Hay spoke to the Berlin Mayor and Council about the incident during a meeting on Monday, Aug. 25. She named four streets in Berlin – Branch, West, Washington and Burley – that she felt were unsafe and asked if the town could change regulations to allow for fines rather than warnings following initial contact with off-leash dogs.
Berlin Chief Arnold Downing said he was not aware of any new reports of incidents with off-leash dogs.
“I talked to (Hay) the night of Council meeting and let her know what animal control was doing,” Downing said. “I don’t think she was really up to speed with animal control, but I haven’t talked to her since.”
Downing’s advice was to call police or animal control immediately if a pedestrian sees an off-leash animal outside of its own property.
“We’ll go ahead and document that,” he said. “The statement that (Hay) made during the meeting that we could not give warnings the first time – that’s a practice, not a law. We go ahead and look at the situation. It’s a different story if a dog has run off from its owner and it’s something that’s not criminal, but if people are allowing their dogs to repeatedly come off their property or the dogs become a nuisance – going into other people’s yards and causing problems or barking too loudly – we go ahead and deal with that accordingly on a case-by-case basis.”
Worcester County Animal Control deemed the dog “potentially dangerous,” according to Assistant Chief Glen Grandstaff.
“The Maryland Potentially Dangerous Dog letter is basically just a stern warning,” Grandstaff said. “It takes a ‘Dangerous’ dog letter to turn into more stringent guidelines for the owner of the animal to go back.”
The Worcester County Health Department ordered the attacking animal remain under observational quarantine for 10 days following the incident.
“We don’t really have a whole lot of problems with vicious dog bites, but it seems like when you do have them it’s usually quite an issue that revolves around it,” Grandstaff said. “It’s very seldom that we get animal-on-animal attacks – and thankfully we have even fewer dogs on humans – but it seems like when we do get them that something needs to be done.”
Janet Tull, rabies coordinator for the Worcester County Health Department, said dog attacks reported to the department fall under medical confidentiality guidelines.
“A scratch or a bite and then the Health Department absolutely is involved for the 10-day requirement for an observation of the animal to rule out any exposure to rabies,” Tull said. “The law requires reporting of all animal bites to humans – animal bites, scratches, or other potential exposures to rabies. Beyond that we’re not involved in terms of escalating management of the animal to prevent it from happening again – that’s what animal control does.”
The Health Department does not quantify circumstances in animal bites or scratches, so no discriminating statistics were available concerning dog attacks on humans or other animals.
Tull said Worcester County investigates more than 200 animal bites or exposure incidents each year. The country confirmed eight cases of rabies in 2014, including six raccoons, one fox and one bat. None of the confirmed incidents involved dogs.
“Statistically around 70 percent of pet owners keep their dogs currently vaccinated,” Tull said. “It’s a much lower number with cats, even though both are required by law by the county and the state. They’re all supposed to be licensed and vaccinated.”
An off-leash dog scratched Berlin resident Pam Hay on Saturday, Aug. 2, and bit her 3-year-old Cairn terrier Lulu while on a walk near downtown Berlin. After filing a police report, Hay took Lulu to a veterinarian’s emergency room in Salisbury where doctors treated her for puncture wounds.
Hay spoke to the Berlin Mayor and Council about the incident during a meeting on Monday, Aug. 25. She named four streets in Berlin – Branch, West, Washington and Burley – that she felt were unsafe and asked if the town could change regulations to allow for fines rather than warnings following initial contact with off-leash dogs.
Berlin Chief Arnold Downing said he was not aware of any new reports of incidents with off-leash dogs.
“I talked to (Hay) the night of Council meeting and let her know what animal control was doing,” Downing said. “I don’t think she was really up to speed with animal control, but I haven’t talked to her since.”
Downing’s advice was to call police or animal control immediately if a pedestrian sees an off-leash animal outside of its own property.
“We’ll go ahead and document that,” he said. “The statement that (Hay) made during the meeting that we could not give warnings the first time – that’s a practice, not a law. We go ahead and look at the situation. It’s a different story if a dog has run off from its owner and it’s something that’s not criminal, but if people are allowing their dogs to repeatedly come off their property or the dogs become a nuisance – going into other people’s yards and causing problems or barking too loudly – we go ahead and deal with that accordingly on a case-by-case basis.”
Worcester County Animal Control deemed the dog “potentially dangerous,” according to Assistant Chief Glen Grandstaff.
“The Maryland Potentially Dangerous Dog letter is basically just a stern warning,” Grandstaff said. “It takes a ‘Dangerous’ dog letter to turn into more stringent guidelines for the owner of the animal to go back.”
The Worcester County Health Department ordered the attacking animal remain under observational quarantine for 10 days following the incident.
“We don’t really have a whole lot of problems with vicious dog bites, but it seems like when you do have them it’s usually quite an issue that revolves around it,” Grandstaff said. “It’s very seldom that we get animal-on-animal attacks – and thankfully we have even fewer dogs on humans – but it seems like when we do get them that something needs to be done.”
Janet Tull, rabies coordinator for the Worcester County Health Department, said dog attacks reported to the department fall under medical confidentiality guidelines.
“A scratch or a bite and then the Health Department absolutely is involved for the 10-day requirement for an observation of the animal to rule out any exposure to rabies,” Tull said. “The law requires reporting of all animal bites to humans – animal bites, scratches, or other potential exposures to rabies. Beyond that we’re not involved in terms of escalating management of the animal to prevent it from happening again – that’s what animal control does.”
The Health Department does not quantify circumstances in animal bites or scratches, so no discriminating statistics were available concerning dog attacks on humans or other animals.
Tull said Worcester County investigates more than 200 animal bites or exposure incidents each year. The country confirmed eight cases of rabies in 2014, including six raccoons, one fox and one bat. None of the confirmed incidents involved dogs.
“Statistically around 70 percent of pet owners keep their dogs currently vaccinated,” Tull said. “It’s a much lower number with cats, even though both are required by law by the county and the state. They’re all supposed to be licensed and vaccinated.”