Hopkinsville should consider a pit bull ban after two attacks in the past week left three people with serious injuries, a postal worker told city council members Tuesday night.
Curtiss McColm said his co-worker, Jill Cooper, faces months of recovery after a pit bull mauled her March 25 on Jessup Avenue.
“Aggressive and vicious dogs are possibly the most dreaded hazard” that postal carriers face, McColm said, reading from a letter he left with council members. He also gave the council a photograph of Cooper’s severely injured leg calf.
An eye witness to the other attack, which was March 27 on McHenry Street, also spoke to the council.
“I was working in my yard that morning at 10 o’clock , and I heard an ear-piercing shriek,” Thomas James told the council.
He went to a neighbor’s house and saw a woman pinned against her front door with a pit bull attacking her legs and working its way up her body. It looked like the dog was trying to get her on the ground. When the woman’s son came out of the house, the dog attacked him.
James, who is a military veteran with combat experience, said it was the bloodiest scene he had ever witnessed.
The victims in that attack were Mildred Burse and Darrius Burse, the Kentucky New Era reported last week. They were taken to Jennie Stuart Medical Center.
The victim in the other attack was flown to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville by helicopter. In addition to her bite injuries, Cooper is also taking shots to prevent rabies because the dog was not up-to-date on vaccinations, said McColm.
In his letter to the council, McColm said the city should ban pit bulls or require them to be muzzled when outdoors. He cited a law in Bracken County, northeast of Lexington, where the fiscal court adopted a ban on pit bulls several years ago that was upheld by an appeal’s court decision.
He also asked the city to make a priority of responding to calls for help with loose and aggressive dogs.
“Current perception among many letter carriers is that calls to Animal Control concerning dogs at-large are not handled with any sense of urgency,” he said.
The city has two full-time animal control officers, Police Chief Clayton Sumner said after the council meeting.
They respond to about 3,700 calls a year, or about 10 a day, in addition to picking up loose dogs they see on their own. They also help residents with nuisance animals, such as snakes and skunks, by setting traps.
In 2017, the city took 22 reports of dogs biting a person. Last year, there were 11.
The city has an ordinance which requires dogs and cats to be kept on the property of the owner.
Mayor Carter Hendricks said the city is considering options to respond to the attacks. The council will discuss the problem at a future Committee of the Whole meeting, he said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
