16 Responses to “child bitten by dog”

1. posted by ruth at April 23, 2008 4:07 pm :
   

   I’m so tired of all of the dogs that are turned loose by their ghetto-owners. I’ve had to call the police twice this week about letting their pit bulls run free. Guess what? Nothing happened. I saw no animal control officer and the dogs still run free on a regular basis. An officer needs patrol for a couple of days to pick up all of the dogs running around here.

2. posted by Chris at April 23, 2008 11:52 pm :
   

   While I agree that there are way too many dogs running around (and not just pits), we’ve personally had excellent response from Animal Control (even on Fridays after 5pm) on the several unfortunate occasions we’ve had to call them. There are just too many dogs and too few people willing to do the job. Maybe you’re willing to volunteer?

   Why did you call the police instead of Animal Control?

   Did anyone see the two AC officers trying to round up a stray on the MLK bridge early in the morning last week? Not sure what that was about.

3. posted by Jackie at April 24, 2008 8:12 am :
   

   I have not had a good experience with animal control in Church Hill, particularly last summer. We called on a number of occasions about a hurt dog that would growl and snap if you got near it and no one ever came out. We’ve also called about the packs of dogs roaming that will tear apart trash and rifle through recycle boxes, and no one came out. Perhaps Chris’ experience means they are getting it together.

4. posted by ewc at April 30, 2008 11:12 am :
   

   Ruth,
   Define ghetto? Do you know what that means? Watch what you say. Your comments are VERY offensive and I’m surprised that no one has called you out on them yet. I have seen numerous dogs run these streets off leash. Not just pit bulls… collies, pugs, etc… If you are upset by dogs running loose be it pit bulls or whatever… call animal control and see how YOU can help. They do a lot of good things for our community. Unfortunately, they have a VERY small staff and limited resources.

5. posted by Lendo at April 30, 2008 11:19 am :
   

   “Unfortunately, they have a VERY small staff and limited resources.”

   Absolutely, they do the best they can w/ the 3 (?) AC officers for the entire city.

   But i agree it would be nice if people took more precautions to make sure their dogs didn’t roam the streets.

6. posted by Big Al at April 30, 2008 12:01 pm :
   

   Ghetto is on the pc dont say list now? Why? It has lots of meanings and if you are too closeminded to immediately think of it as having racial undertones, perhaps you need to rethink the way you respond to words.

7. posted by han solo at April 30, 2008 8:39 pm :
   

   actually, big al, it does have racial undertones, and overtones, especially on a mostly white blog such as this one, and in a city such as ours. that’s just how it is. you can argue linguistics all day. it isn’t going to change the past.

   i’m sure ruth means well, but i’m also sure she wouldn’t use that word in someone’s face. like, “what’s up, ghetto-owner? how’s it hanging?” if you can’t say it out loud to someone without it sounding weird, then you shouldn’t say it.

8. posted by Jackie at April 30, 2008 9:06 pm :
   

   Um…not to focus too much on the actual thread…but… Tonight I had another fun incident with animal control not responding to calls. I had a pigeon stuck in my power line and a dog that was hurt a street over. Multiple people called regarding both. Animal control did not call back or show up after several hours. I managed to get the pigeon free and someone took the dog to an emergency vet as a stray. I will state it again, I have never been successful at reaching animal control. Wonder if anyone would have noticed if the pigeon had shorted out the power to the block?

9. posted by Cagitate at April 30, 2008 11:35 pm :
   

   When a pitbull attacked another dog in my alley, AC told our neighbor that all calls must go through the police. Not sure if that’s true, but that’s what we were told.

   And I agree with ewc and han solo- I’ve only ever heard the term ghetto in Richmond applied to poor black neighborhoods- definitely has racial connotations and tends to be used judgmentally to describe problematic behavior. And throwing up the PC card is often a way to avoid thinking about the impact of words on other people- n****r is on the PC “dont say list”, after all. Should we reinstate it?

10. posted by john_m at May 1, 2008 6:31 am :
    

    I’ve only ever heard the term ghetto in Richmond applied to poor black neighborhoods

    Oregon Hill is still kind of ghetto, though less so than it used to be.

11. posted by Shannon at May 1, 2008 7:53 am :
    

    Oregon Hill is the only place that i have lived in Richmond that scared the life out of my dad when he came to visit. This was maybe 1990. He was genuinely frightened for me, and strongly encouraged me to move the hell out of there.

    And he was born and raised in Butte, Montana, where manners are the norm due in part to the fact that everyone’s packing.

    Ha! Haven’t thought about that in a while. Thanks for the memory, John. :)

12. posted by John at May 1, 2008 9:25 am :
    

    Ghetto: 1. a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships.
    2. (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.
    3. a section predominantly inhabited by Jews.

    Origin: 1605–15; Italian, orig. the name of an island near Venice where Jews were forced to reside in the 16th century

13. posted by cagitate at May 1, 2008 2:33 pm :
    

    John M., you’re the first person I’ve ever heard in my 30 years of living in Richmond call O.Hill ghetto. The Oregon Hill community blog does not have a record of that term anywhere on its site.

    But thank you for expanding it beyond a racial term. Can you elucidate for me how OH is a ghetto?

14. posted by Tanya at May 1, 2008 3:50 pm :
    

    Animal Control has 6 officers to cover the entire city of Richmond 24 hours a day plus weekends. If you want more service, contact your elected mayor and city council and let them know this is important.

15. posted by john_m at May 1, 2008 5:18 pm :
    

    

    Can you elucidate for me how OH is a ghetto?

    I lived 4 places in Oregon Hill between 1993 and 2000. There were all sorts of things in the working-class neighborhood that seemed “ghetto” to my suburban-raised self.

    • At the first apartment, we had folks stealing the fuses out our fusebox and sparkplugs from out of motorcycles. I was awaked more than once by the sound of the then-a-cornermarket across the street being broken into.
    • There were roaming dogs that I used to have to go around the block to avoid.
    • At the next apartment, we lived next to a family that had an ignored dog out back on a chain. The dog barked so much that its voice was raspy.
    • They had a spectacularly customized vehicle.
    • The third place was next to burned-out abandoned house, and across the street from a house constructed entirely out of cinderblocks.
    • The thugged-out neighborhood youth…
    • The adults screaming at each other in the street…
    • Ghetto brick!
16. posted by Shannon at May 1, 2008 5:24 pm :
    

    John -

    I also remember that 5 year old running around by himself all the time, still wearing a diaper that was stained neon yellow, (and you could tell because that’s all he was wearing…) I once saw him smoking a cigar while cleaning his daddy’s nine mm.*

    Kid’s street name was Snuffelupagus or something.

    Good times.

    *partially contrived for full effect. But not the Snuffleupagus part.

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