MILITARY: Camp Pendleton count shows 220 potentially dangerous dogs
Directive requires removal of aggressive breeds if they can't pass behavior test
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Camp Pendleton has about 190 pit bulls and 30 Rottweilers, breeds considered so aggressive that they are being banned from Marine Corps bases worldwide unless they can pass what amounts to a "good doggie" exam.
Maj. Kristen Lasica-Khaner, a base spokeswoman, provided the count after a recent directive from Marine Corps headquarters in Washington banned purebred and mixed-breed pit bulls, Rottweilers, wolf hybrids and any other dog deemed a risk to people living in base housing.
The ban is being instituted as a safety measure and comes after a 3-year-old boy was killed by a dog at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune last year.
Owners of the estimated 220 dogs at Camp Pendleton that fall under the new policy can seek a waiver allowing them to keep the animal if the dog passes the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen Test, which measures friendliness with strangers and behavior when other dogs are around.
But the policy expressly forbids troops moving onto a base from bringing any of the banned breeds with them.
The waiver provision has a limit, however.
None of the breeds named in the policy can be on any Marine Corps base after September 2012, a date by which officials say most people now in base housing will have moved on.
Camp Pendleton officials are still working out the details to implement the policy.
The base could seek a waiver, allowed when requested by the base commander and approved by Marine Corps brass in Washington.
Waivers granted to dogs that pass the citizenship test will be terminated if the animals attack or bite another animal or person.
Troops who fail to comply are subject to disciplinary action and their dogs would be confined.
Violating the order is grounds for eviction from family housing.
While the Humane Society of the United States and American Kennel Club oppose a ban on any specific breed, saying that the relevant factor is the behavior of a dog and not its lineage, a former Camp Pendleton resident said the directive evoked painful memories.
Sunday Weiss of Vista said she and her husband, a former Marine, lived in a base house in the mid-1980s when a neighbor's dog bit her daughter's ear so badly that reconstructive surgery was required.
"Learning about the new policy opened up an old wound for me," Weiss said this week.
In Weiss' case, the same dog also had bitten a young boy three months before her daughter was bitten, she said.
With the Marine Corps playing a large role in Iraq and Afghanistan, Weiss said wives often are too busy with their kids to keep a close watch on their dogs.
In her case, the dog that bit her daughter was ordered removed from the base.
The owner complied, Weiss said, but later brought it back.
Authorities then ordered the dog destroyed and the owner was evicted from the base, she said.
An instructor at a base school agrees with Weiss that banning so-called "gladiator dogs" such as pit bulls is long overdue.
"When an organization like the Marine Corps, known for its honor, does something like this ... I think people should sit up and listen," said Sandra Wilkes, who runs the art assistance program at the base's Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School.
Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-740-3529.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/article_5b0c7663-98df-5c49-88e4-43229c96af20.html
