[ SHOWGSD-L ] FW: NJ - Congo's Law to be Introduced 11-19-07
- From: "castle kennels" <castlegsd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:08:09 -0600
For those who are still interested, this was sent to me today by Congo's
owner.
Pat
Castle Kennels, LTD.
Where Shepherds of Distinction Reign
www.castlekennels.com
_____
From: savecongo@xxxxxxx [mailto:savecongo@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 6:50 AM
To: castlegsd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; cwigley@xxxxxxxxxxx; cwigley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
chervisbell@xxxxxxxxx; hplainsd1@xxxxxxx; eagleray7@xxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd: NJ - Congo's Law to be Introduced 11-19-07
-----Original Message-----
From: Libby Williams <libbywill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: libbywill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 9:47 pm
Subject: NJ - Congo's Law to be Introduced 11-19-07
CONGO TO GET HIS DAY IN STATE HOUSE
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Trenton Times - http://tinyurl.com/2jxjaj
By Linda Stein
NJ - The Princeton Township dog- bite case that has tongues wagging around
the country will be on the agenda of the state Legislature when a bill
dubbed "Congo's Law" is expected to be introduced in the Assembly tomorrow.
Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D- Union, plans to introduce the bill, which is
designed to change the laws regarding vicious dogs and address perceived
flaws brought to light by the case.
Cohen, who has introduced a plethora of animal-related legislation, believes
the current law is un fair and outdated. Some of the provisions in the
proposed law will include a definition of provocation that will take into
account the dog's point of view rather than the human's and also raise the
standard for finding a dog vicious to be yond a reasonable doubt, the same
standard now in use when humans are charged with a crime.
A lawyer for Congo's owners has argued that Congo, a 2 1/2-year-old German
shepherd, was provoked when he led a dog attack and mauled a landscaper on
June 5 at a house in Princeton Township. But the township prosecutor, the
animal control officer and a municipal court judge say it was an unprovoked
attack.
Landscaper Giovanni Rivera, who was hospitalized and underwent surgery for
his wounds, received a $250,000 settlement from the residents' insurer, plus
medical expenses.
"It certainly could be precedent-setting," said Robert Lytle, the lawyer for
the Congo's owners, of the case.
Congo, one of six German shepherds owned by Guy and Elizabeth James, was
ruled vicious by Municipal Court Judge Russell Annich Jr. and, if that
ruling is upheld, must be put down. Annich stayed his decision pending an
appeal to Superior Court.
A Superior Court judge Thursday allowed the dog to return to his home,
pending appeal, with numerous restrictions in place, including that he wear
a muzzle and be kept inside a fenced area.
Provocation will be the heart of the Superior Court appeal, Lytle said,
arguing that Congo was provoked into attacking Rivera when Rivera grabbed
Elizabeth James, causing her to scream.
Relying on testimony from an expert witness, a professor of veterinary
science from the University of Pennsylvania, Lytle said the issue of
provocation must be decided from the "perspective of a reasonably
well-behaved dog."
He noted that none of the James family's six dogs had bitten anyone before,
and he presented statements from people, including delivery drivers and
tradesmen who have come in contact with the dogs, attesting to their gentle
natures. He argued that the state failed to prove that Congo had been
unprovoked.
Annich, the judge who presided at the two-day Municipal Court trial, said it
was a difficult decision because no case law exists in New Jersey on the
issue of provocation.
In his Oct. 30 opinion, Annich noted, "The statute does not define
provocation and there is no helpful case law in New Jersey. There is no
evidence to suggest that Mr. Rivera or anyone else on the scene in tended to
provoke the dogs to at tack."
"The critical issue in the case was the question of provocation and it being
a relatively recent law, there was no New Jersey case law that I could be
guided by," Annich said in an interview. "So I looked at the legislative
intent and out-of- state cases from Minnesota and Illinois."
Kim A. Otis, the prosecutor who handled the case for the township, agreed
that provocation is "one of the big issues. There is no help (in the case
law) on provocation. They argued it through the eyes of the dog and I argued
through the eyes of a reasonable person. There are dogs that are bred and
trained to attack. Let's say they breed a dog as part of its makeup to
attack when they moved a hand very quickly. Nobody in their right mind would
argue if a child went up to scratch its ear and was mauled to death that it
was a reasonable provocation. My argument is, it must be from the standpoint
of a reasonable person."
Among other things, the Congo bill would include a presumption against
euthanasia.
The law also would be retroactive to all dogs now deemed vicious and facing
death, including Congo, Cohen said.
"The nature of a dog is to protect those around them," Cohen said.
Self-defense and the defense of others is a justification for human
violence, and dogs should have the same protection, he said.
"Congo's situation points up the need to modernize the law and make it fair
to the owners and the animals," Cohen said. Congo's plight was brought to
his attention by a woman who read news reports about the dog and who called
him, Cohen said.
"The nature of this is essentially a criminal case," Cohen said. "Everything
should be beyond reasonable doubt."
The proposed bill would also do away with the tattooing provision for
potentially dangerous dogs, which Cohen likened to a "scarlet A." And it
would ensure families have access to dogs that are impounded.
Cohen, who owns a miniature schnauzer named Ginger, also recently introduced
a bill to strengthen criminal penalties for dog fighting after charges were
brought against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. That bill remains
pending, he said.
Guy James, Congo's owner, welcomed the bill, saying, "If anything good comes
out of this ordeal, Congo has not been locked up in vain. This law will
protect any future cases like ours. We have been through hell and back in
this horrific incident. Congo's law will be a reminder to us all that we
should stand up for our rights and not roll over."
Gina Calogero, an Oradel lawyer who has handled several vicious dog cases in
her career, agreed there are no in-state published opinions on the
provocation issue.
"There is only one reported decision," she said. "It happens to be mine."
She said that case, regarding Splinter, a Saddlebrook dog, was eventually
decided on "procedural issues," but provocation was also a factor.
"If a dog causes serious bodily injury, then it's declared vicious and
euthanized," Calogero said. "It has to be an unprovoked attack and the state
has to prove it. Under the circumstances of this (Congo) case, I think
provocation was clear. Any dog will defend its owner from a perceived
attack. The woman was grabbed. She screamed out loud. I think the dog was
justified in perceiving that she was attacked even though that was not Mr.
Rivera's intent. Dogs are conditioned to protect their family."
Although Splinter's designation was reduced from vicious to potentially
dangerous on appeal, he did not live to come home and rejoin his family but
died in the kennel while waiting for the owners to build a fence required by
law.
As for the Congo case, she said, she hopes it will spur the Legislature to
look at the law again. The law was last amended in 1994.
Lytle, meanwhile, filed a notice of appeal in Superior Court and will file a
motion to stay the imposition of the potentially dangerous dog conditions
imposed by Annich on the four other James dogs that were involved in the
attack on Rivera.
Under the law, the family has 60 days to have the dogs tattooed, they must
be fenced in, the family must notify the police if they escape or bite
someone else and they must pay $700 per dog each year in licensing fees.
Isabelle Strauss, the lawyer who handled the case of Taro, the dog who was
pardoned by then-Governor Christie Whitman in 1994, continues to handle
animal cases.
Taro, an Akita, bit a 10-year-old girl in 1990 in Harworth in Bergen County.
Animal lovers wrote letters to the governor on Taro's behalf.
"The law changed somewhat after Taro's case," Strauss said. "And in one
significant aspect, it changed to provide that the state has the burden to
prove that the dog was not provoked. From everything I've seen, the state
did not meet its burden in the Congo case."
Some of the judges are reluctant to look at this from the animal's point of
view Strauss said. "The comparison that I always give is: Someone walks into
your house and means no ill and the dog bites them. Or a robber comes in and
is bitten and the dog is declared a hero. The same dog has no way to tell
which is which, so it makes no sense to interpret the statute from the
person's point of view, but must be interpreted from the dog's. To interpret
it any other way makes no sense," she said.
Cases like these are "all heart- wrenching and emotionally and financially
draining," Strauss said.
"And some animal control officers try to prevail upon people to sign over
their animals telling them how costly it can be and that they can't win.
People are not aware they do have a right to present a defense," she said.
Otis offered a plea bargain to the James family to allow Congo to be labeled
potentially dangerous rather than vicious, an offer he said was still on the
table.
"Plea bargaining was not a choice but the lesser of two evils," said Guy
James. "It's not the right message to send to the public." The family
offered to comply with the requirements of the dangerous dog designation but
without that label.
Linda Stein can be reached at lstein@xxxxxxxxxxx
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