By CHRIS DiEDOARDO
Daily Transcript Staff Writer
April 7, 1997
Kathryn V. Rogow is an attorney who has gone to the dogs. And she's never been happier.
"It helps to set you apart from the crowd, especially when you're new, as I didn't have the benefit of working in a law office before I started my practice," Rogow said.
She specializes in shepherding pet owners through the forest of county regulations that govern pet ownership.
"Dog law is what I call it, but we don't discriminate against cats, birds, whatever," Rogow said with a laugh.
And her client base is vast. There are about 140,000 licensed dogs in the county, but experts believe there's a much larger group of unlicensed canines in the area.
She said the biggest part of her job is educating people about the proper philosophy to have towards pet ownership.
"Dogs don't think they are people," Rogow said. "They think people are dogs and are going to look at the world through those lenses."
In some cases, they may not like what they see. Owners who don't comply with the law can face fines, criminal sanctions and occasionally the death of their dog at the hands of San Diego County Animal Control.
There are two main ways people can run afoul of the law.
"The first one is the leash law," she said. "This is the one saying you're not supposed to let the dog run at large.
"If Animal Control is going to bring a complaint against you, it's because the dog has gotten out eight or nine times," Rogow said. "If you violate this law, you're guilty of a misdemeanor.
"I had a guy who was fined $400 for failing to restrain his dog," she said. "That was with me there representing him and negotiating for him."
"If you don't have a lawyer and they don't want to negotiate, it can get expensive," Rogow said. "Also, if you don't want to pay the fine, you might find yourself on a Saturday morning picking up trash on the side of the highway."
She said the biggest tragedy for her is that the animals often suffer for the carelessness of their owners.
"The law is so straightforward and easy to comply with," Rogow said.
As the owner of three dogs, she said an incident with a neighbor's golden retriever illustrated her point.
"This dog ran off its property to get to my dog," Rogow said. "This was the third time it happened to me and what can you say about the owners, other than they were extremely lucky. I did report it to Animal Control, but I finally quit walking by the house because I didn't want the dog to be put to sleep because its owners were knuckleheads."
Besides the prevention of dogfights, there are other reasons to keep a dog leashed.
"Dogs can attack children and can cause auto accidents if the driver swerves to avoid them," Rogow said. "A friendly dog can knock someone over and possibly break bones. There's a lot of injuries a dog can cause other than by biting. That's why it's so important to control your dog."
And contrary to popular myth, no dog is allowed "one free bite."
"If the dog ends up biting someone, there is no 'bright-line' test," she said, "i.e., if the victim needs 70 stitches the dog will be destroyed but with 50 stitches they won't."
That's the other road that can lead to trouble for canines and their keepers.
"The dog would certainly need to be quarantined to make sure it doesn't have rabies," she said. "And God help you if you don't have a license for the dog, as that's also a violation."
In both cases, the fate of the animal is within the discretion of the hearing officer, usually an Animal Control lieutenant.
"If they call you in for a hearing, they're pretty sure they're going to win," Rogow said. "So, then it becomes a matter of how to abate the nuisance. Do we need to destroy the dog or can we save it?"
But the solution often isn't cheap.
"If your dog is declared a public nuisance, you need to obtain $100,000 of liability insurance, spay or neuter it and maintain a separate public nuisance registration for it," Rogow said.
In addition, owners need to develop an enclosure plan so that the animal doesn't run amok. That burden can often fall disproportionately on the poor.
"If you have a person who's low-income and just barely made enough to get the dog licensed, it's going to be well-nigh impossible to build a bigger fence," she said.
And if the owner can't abate the nuisance?
"Then the dog is going to be destroyed," Rogow said, "as they won't adopt-out a dog declared to be a public nuisance."
However, even in an Animal Control hearing, every dog has their day.
"I had a woman call me because they said her Great Pyrenees bit someone while there was another Great Pyrenees running wild throughout the neighborhood," Rogow said. "Here, you have a situation where the person has a fighting chance.
"The dog that allegedly bit was a male and her dog is a female," she said. "She was at home working and someone who works with her said the dog was with them all day.
"So, the dog has an alibi," Rogow said.
For more information, see her Web site at http://www.w3u.com/kr.
diedoardo@sddt.com
Please note: This article remains the property of its writer and is displayed here for information purposes only - January 6, 1999
