Mass. show of support for pit bulls

Pit bull supporters vastly outnumbered opponents at a State House hearing yesterday on whether the Legislature should consider a statewide ban on the breed.

About 150 dog owners, trainers, and animal advocates, many sporting T-shirts and jackets emblazoned with images of pit bulls, made for a sometimes raucous crowd, grousing at what they saw as antagonistic questioning from members of the committee considering the ban after a series of highly publicized attacks on children and others.

Most of the veterinarians and animal behavior specialists who testified said a pit bull ban would not protect people from attacks. Instead of focusing on the breed, they said, the state should hold breeders and owners more accountable for vicious dogs.

Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, also said that pit bulls were difficult to identify and therefore difficult for a law to target and that other big, strong dogs can be as dangerous as pit bulls if improperly cared for or bred.

"I think breed-specific legislation is odious," he said. "It's fraught with all kinds of problems."

No legislation banning pit bulls has been filed, but Representative Vincent A. Pedone, House chairman of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, has expressed interest in the idea and scheduled the hearing to explore ways to control vicious dogs.

Yesterday he repeatedly asked witnesses whether they would prefer to be bitten by a German shepherd or a pit bull, and he grilled those with veterinary exper tise on the pit bull's infamous temperament.

Such questioning infuriated people who sat for hours waiting for their chance to shower the committee with pit bull testimonials. Julie Rembrandt Seeley, corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Federation of Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners, left the hearing without testifying after 3 1/2 hours, saying she was convinced that Pedone was "basically on a pit bull witch hunt.' "

After the hearing, however, Pedone said that a statewide ban would be difficult to enforce, but that "everything was still being looked at," including restrictions for specific breeds. "The committee is going to continue to look at different ideas relative to how we can update our dog laws and possible breed-specific legislation," said the Worcester Democrat.

Two children were attacked by pit bulls in separate incidents last week in Boston.

One of them was Zayre Morant, 7, of Dorchester, who lost a chunk of his right arm when a neighbor's dog mauled him. The dog was put to sleep, said April Shearrion, 32, the boy's mother, but she said that Zayre's arm is infected and that he is in pain.

"I think they should ban them not only in Massachusetts, but in the US, period," she said. "Some family's going to experience worse than what I've experienced."

While some have also debated the issue, no Legislature has placed statewide restrictions on pit bulls, according to Marcy Setter of Milford, who runs a website, understand-a-bull.com, which tracks such legislation. Some municipalities have bans, includ ing Denver and Prince George's County, Md., near Washington, D.C., according to the website. Many municipalities in Massachusetts and across the country have adopted restrictions on pit bull ownership.

Since 2004, Boston has required pit bull owners to muzzle their dogs in public, to spay or neuter them, display warning signs on their property, and if they rent, to obtain a permission letter from their landlords, according to the city's website.

In April, Canton approved a new bylaw that prohibits households from owning multiple pit bulls, said Paul R. DeRensis, the town counsel.

Dodman said butchers once used pit bulls to restrain large bulls about to be slaughtered: The dogs would attach themselves to the bulls' noses "like a living nose ring," he said. Later, he said, they were bred to fight in pits. The term pit bull now encompasses a number of different breeds, he said. A relative of the pit bull, the Boston terrier, is the state's official dog.

Pit bulls are strong, powerful animals with a high pain threshold, Dodman said, and when they bite, they often clamp their jaws and refuse to let go. He told the committee that fatal pit bull attacks are relatively rare, and that pit bulls tend to be more aggressive toward other dogs than toward people. Most attacks on humans, he said, are the result of careless breeding that produces antisocial dogs or of owners encour aging their dogs to be aggressive. Most dogs that bite are males that are not neutered.

"When you count all the things that maleness brings with it -- roaming and mounting and aggression and leg-lifting, urine marking -- there's nothing, really, that a family needs," he said.

Rather than ban pit bulls, Dodman suggested later that the panel consider other tactics to curb problem dogs, including requir ing owners to take a test on dog care before they buy a dog and getting rid of puppy mills and unscrupulous breeders.

Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com.