Pit bull case creates quandary for Terrebonne council

The death of a 4-year-old Houma girl attacked by her family’s 130-pound dog – and the mauling of her mother by the same animal – sent shockwaves throughout Terrebonne Parish as well as more distant communities where the tale was told.

But so far local lawmakers say the incident, while tragic and horrifying, is not likely to result in changes to local ordinances regarding dangerous or vicious animals.

“I’d be happy to review it, but I just don’t have an idea for any wording that would have stopped that particular attack from occurring,” said Coucilwoman Beryl Amadee, expressing a view shared by other local lawmakers interviewed last week.

The attack occurred at around 7 pm March 25 in an apartment at the Houma-Highland complex on South Hollywood Road.

Police initially responded to a report of a disturbance and learned that the dog, a pit bull, had attacked the child, identified as Mia Derouen, as well as her mother, identified as 27-year-old Megan Touchet, who tried in vain to fight it and save her daughter’s life.

The distraught and injured mother grabbed her child and the two cowered behind a closed bedroom door; Megan handed Mia to medical personnel through the window. Life-saving efforts were not successful.

Officers fired a total of 12 shots at the dog described by Police Chief Todd Duplantis as “a monster.”

Initial shots fired inside the apartment were not enough to halt the beast, and officers continued firing after it had left the apartment.

The dog, Duplantis said, was not being used for fighting so far as investigators could determine, and had not been abused in any way.

The dog had never been cited as a threat, and so had not been subject to Terrebonne’s dangerous and vicious dog ordinances.

Lincoln and St. Mary parishes have pit bull bans, according to the Web site “Understand-a-Bull” and other communities throughout the US have enacted bans.

A pit bull ban in Terrebonne is not likely.

“We don’t want to do something that is going to take away peoples’ rights, by banning a specific breed of dog,” said Councilman Dirk Guidry.

Amadee said breed-specific bans can be tricky, and parish council members agreed that if a ban was to be considered, they would have to work closely with the parish’s attorney.

The current local law provides definitions for both dangerous and vicious dogs but is not breed specific; a dog can be declared dangerous by a judge, or through a parish administrative hearing, by a specially convened panel.

Dangerous behavior is defined as any unprovoked behavior that requires “a defensive action by any person to prevent bodily injury when the person and the dog are off the property of the owner of the dog.”

The ordinance also states that a dog can be declared dangerous if it bites a person whether on or off its owner’s property, causing severe injury, or if it has “killed, seriously bitten, inflicted severe injury, or otherwise caused injury to any animal off the property of the owner of the dog.”

In the final analysis, a dog may be declared dangerous by the panel if it has “exhibited any other behavior that warrants it be declared a dangerous dog.”

Dangerous dogs may be seized, but must be returned to their owners after a hearing. The owners are required to comply with certain rules, including restraint.

Vicious dogs, on the other hand, are those that, without provocation, kill or inflict serious injury on a person. A dog declared “dangerous” in the past that repeats aggressive behavior can also be deemed vicious.

The administrative hearing panel makes the determination.

There are exceptions, such as a case where the dog acted against someone committing a crime on the owner’s property, or if a person had been tormenting, teasing, abusing or assaulting the dog. If the dog was defending a person within it immediate vicinity from an unjustified attack or assault, there are safeguards as well.

It is unlawful to own a dog declared vicious; fines and costs can be assessed against the owner and the dog would be seized by the parish, placed into the custody of its Animal Control division.

In all likelihood, once the parish has control of a dog deemed vicious and all resources have been exhausted, the animal will be euthanized.

Euthanization rules are contained in a different portion of the parish code.

Local lawmakers are confounded by the potentials that the death of the child brings up for them.

Several are reading and re-reading the current scheme of ordinances, but question what more can be done.

Breed-specific bans are problematic. Amadee notes that her own son was badly injured by a pair of rottweilers belonging to a relative; they were not attacking but playing, although the play got out of hand.

Rottweilers are not pit bulls, neither are they Dobermans or St. Bernards, all large breeds, some bred to protect, and all subject to the potential for crossed signals.

“After last week’s death I am not sure if I am satisfied with our current ordinances,” said Parish Council Chairman Danny Babin. “I need to go back and get refamiliarized with them. A tragedy like that makes you take a second look. What I ask myself is why would anyone want a 130-pound dog living in an apartment?

“A 130-pound dog that took 12 bullets to kill. It is amazing to me and it is disheartening. If the laws were different would that child be alive? I don’t know. Sometimes you don’t need laws, you need people to have good common sense.”

Mia Derouen, pictured with her father Christopher Derouen, was laid to rest Saturday. She was fatally attacked last week by the family’s pit bull. She would have turned 5 years old today.

COURTESY PHOTO