Those who thought I'd quietly fade away after Jeanetta and our little dog Benji were savagely mauled by an unrestrained dog during a morning walk along a Harrison public street haven't been reading my columns over the past two decades.
And a bit of research shows that, unlike our more practical neighbor Oklahoma, Arkansas has a dog law that basically allows a dog one free bite to be proven dangerous before the owner can be held legally accountable.
So in order to prove I'm legally responsible for my dog savaging or perhaps killing you and/or your pet who are minding your own business in a public place, you would have to show that I knew it previously displayed such dangerous tendencies.
Oklahoma's law is far more practical and logical. Here it is word for word: "The owner or owners of any dog shall be liable for damages to the full amount of any damages sustained when his dog, without provocation, bites or injures any person while such person is in or on a place where he has a lawful right to be."
Simple enough. If I don't have my animal effectively restrained and it attacks and injures a person and/or their pet who've done nothing to provoke it, I am legally responsible. That's only right.
Even that isn't enough for me. In addition to civil responsibility, there should be criminal penalties with sharp consequences for negligent owners. That will stop this unacceptable situation.
We are talking about people and their beloved pets being badly injured and sometimes killed. Does it get much more serious?
While pit bulls and pit bull mixes draw the majority of headlines for these unprovoked assaults on the innocent, this certainly would apply to all larger breeds that over the years have been known to attack without provocation.
It makes sense, rather than trying to ban a particular breed from a city, that the most effective way to prevent innocent people and their animals from being savagely mauled or killed is to make certain they don't have unrestrained access to people and animals in public.
For me, it's a similar argument to keeping deadly weapons locked in a gun safe.
Look, if I owned a pet bear or mountain lion and allowed it to roam from my property, shouldn't I be held responsible, even criminally, if it mauls or kills a man walking his dog on a public street?
Don't I have that fundamental legal and moral responsibility to society and those of my community? To say I don't makes no sense.
Jeanetta and Benji are a far cry from being isolated cases in these attacks. The Maumelle City Council decided against reinstating its pit bull ban the other day in the wake of a resident in his 70s being injured and his little dog killed when two pit bulls owned by a neighbor attacked him on his own property.
Instead of renewing the outright ban, one rational proposal that council apparently will consider is an ordinance that would include responsible fencing and leashing. In other words, human control over an owner's animal.
Councilman Doug Shinn put it perfectly. "We have problems with code enforcement and we have problems with owners not taking responsibility. There's a lot of different problems to be addressed here and it is not by breed."
The news for years has offered plenty of stories about unrestrained larger dogs causing injury and death. We all see and read about them and we all know which breeds of dogs are usually involved.
Euthanizing after the fact an unrestrained violent dog that was following its nature does absolutely nothing to solve our widespread and continuing problem.
Consider these recent examples.
Lynda Horn wrote to say her friend was walking her little chihuahua when a mixed-breed dog came hurtling out of a house on the route she took every morning.
"The large dog knocked her to the ground, and she refused to let go of her little dog, but was punching the large dog with her fist."
(Sound like Jeanetta?)
"Finally the owners came outside and pulled their dog off. Her little dog was severely injured, requiring several overnight stays at the vet."
(Sound like Benji?)
"Animal control picked up the large dog when the 'owners' said the dog (from whose house he'd charged) didn't belong to them, they were just feeding it. Once again, the same lame story with Benji. My friend was left with a large vet bill and was never compensated for the vet bill or her own medical bill."
There was this observation from Karen Carter. "We live in Maumelle, so [Benji's] frightening attack was highlighted by what occurred here as well. This just points out that cities and communities need to be vigilant and concerned about ordinances and enforcements that protect residents from neglect and irresponsible behavior of others that may not be otherwise designated as punishable crimes.
"Hopefully, your column will help to encourage and focus more attention on the matter. No one should dread or be fearful of any kind of animal attack by simply walking out their doors."
No, they surely shouldn't, Karen.
Another dog mauling and killings in Harrison promoted Lavonne Spotlightner to give up her career after she was attacked and seriously injured not long ago on her front porch by two pit bulls roaming from a neighbor's property.
"They badly injured me and killed eight of my cats, leaving me devastated," she said, adding that a friend used a nearby hose to avoid facing a similar fate not long ago as two freely roaming dogs cornered her in her yard.
I believe Maumelle is on the right track, and my hope is that other communities, as well as our state, will take similar meaningful action. The carnage against innocent citizens wrought by unrestrained large dogs needs to end. We need to stop deceiving ourselves into believing it ever will end without rational ordinances and laws with teeth that hold irresponsible owners legally and personally accountable.
That, I feel certain, will finally bring it to an end.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.