By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Humane Society President Kim Aranha said dog owners who fail to train or restrain their pit bulls properly should be heavily fined, but pit bulls should not be banned.

She wants people who breed pit bulls forced to obtain a costly permit.

In April, St Anne’s MP Adrian White urged legislators to consider banning pit bulls. Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell supported his views. Carmichael MP Keith Bell also expressed concern about the dog breed earlier this month.

Ms Aranha’s comment came after a woman said she would complain to the police after a pit bull attacked her 13-year-old potcake, tearing its stomach open.

Erica Aust said her dog, George, was attacked after her handyman’s pit bull escaped its leash. The dog survived and was taken to the Caves Village Veterinary Centre, where it is mending.

Ms Aust said the attack happened suddenly. She said the blood she saw looked “straight out of a horror movie”.

BHS president Kim Aranha said pit bulls must be better managed, not banned.

“I’m not a big fan of breed-specific banning,” she said. “One, the wrong people are handling these dogs, and they’re actually encouraging them to be aggressive. And so if you have dogs that are being encouraged to be aggressive by being tied up, by not being fed regularly, perhaps being teased or taunted, sometimes they’re even beaten, it makes the dog aggressive.

“An awful lot of the people who own pit bulls want them to be aggressive, so they’re sort of creating a monster, and they’re being totally irresponsible with keeping that monster behind a fence.”

Ms Aranha said she believes fining owners who improperly train or restrain pit bulls is the solution.

“I think that the best response to this is to make it unbelievably expensive, painful, complicated and difficult for the owners of these dogs so that they actually get the message and stop being irresponsible,” she said.

“There should be huge enormous fines. The last fine for the shih tzu that was killed was like $6,000, $6,000-plus handed down by the magistrate. And this has to be consistent and it has to be for everyone and that’s a dog-on-dog attack.”

“A dog-on-person attack should be much higher. Where Erica lives, there is a little boy or child. That dog could have killed that kid. But I don’t think it is reasonable to put all the blame on the dog. The blame is on the human.”

Ms Aranha also demanded permits for people to breed pit bulls so the government could adequately regulate the population.

“I think breeders should be charged a heck of a lot of money to have a permit,” she said.

She wants people with spayed or neutered dogs to be charged $20, while those who don’t spay or neuter their dogs are charged $1000 for a licence.

“If you refuse because you want to breed it then pay for it. Pay for that privilege,” she said.

“This situation needs to be managed not banned. It needs to be managed by everybody, it needs to be accepted by everybody. Every arm of the law and the judiciary needs to take this very seriously.”