Regulation of dangerous dogs continues to be an issue in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. A 2022 code change required animal control officers to take tougher action to protect the public, but some say it went too far.
The borough Assembly toughened the code last fall in response to public concerns about biting or otherwise aggressive dogs. Animal control must classify those dogs as dangerous, with repercussions ranging from obedience training to muzzling and euthanasia.
Assembly member Savannah Fletcher said she’s revisiting the issue.
“Essentially the issue was whether or not we were actually protecting people from dangerous animals, who were attacking them on trails, when they were walking in their neighborhoods,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher is writing an ordinance in response to public concern that more dogs are being labelled dangerous and being euthanized.
“It’s causing more people to think that dogs who aren’t actually dangerous are being put down,” she said.
Local animal advocate Kim Lajiness wants more oversight of what’s happening with dogs labelled dangerous at the borough animal shelter.
“Who’s really watching to make sure these dogs labelled dangerous are actually dangerous? Who’s counting how many animals are euthanized?” Lajiness said.
Borough animal control statistics show an average of 20 dogs were euthanized at the shelter for behavioral reasons per month from October through February. That compares to a 17 per month average in the nine months before the dangerous dog code change.
Borough lead animal control officer Raeanne Ross does not attribute the increase to the dangerous animal designation requirement.
“More animals are being deemed dangerous and classified as such but I don’t think we are mandating euthanasia (more) than we had in the past,” Ross said.
Ross and borough animal control manager Sandy Hill point to a rise in the overall number of animals at the shelter post-pandemic as a factor when considering the fate of dogs with behavioral issues.
“The decisions that we’re making are often based on the resources we have available as well as the animals themselves, so if we have more animals in general, we may not have the same amount of resources to spend on an animal that we would have two years ago,” Ross said.
“And I think we’ve seen a decrease in the ability of rescues to take some of these more challenging animals, so some of our resources are limited outside of our shelter as well,” Hill said.
Both Hill and Ross emphasized the challenge of balancing public safety and animal welfare.
“Those two missions can seem very opposed,” Ross said.
“I think we took 11,000 phone calls last year… complaints, and then on the other hand that expectation that we are a humane society and that we find homes for all of the animals regardless of their temperament,” Hill said.
As far as another code change, Fletcher said she’s trying to address the public concern that some dogs are being unfairly labelled dangerous.
“I do think increased conversation around it is the cause of a lot of this perception, but I also don’t want to rule out that we can do better on our animal control side, and make sure we better understand why some animals might be acting out,” she said.
Fletcher said environment has a lot to do with how animals behave. She said she’s gathering information from a variety of sources to craft an ordinance and welcomes citizen input.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
