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Tuesday, March 26, 2002

By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Wilkinsburg resident Bob Mates was waiting for a bus with his guide dog, Zackie, when the attack occurred in 1997.

A pit bull from a house near the bus stop at Ardmore Boulevard and Rebecca Street in Wilkinsburg got loose and attacked Zackie.

Mates, 51, who has been blind all his life and has used a guide dog since 1974, couldn't see what was happening but could hear his dog cry out in pain.

Zackie suffered a severely injured leg and couldn't work for a week.

That meant that Mates, director of the Pittsburgh Lutheran Center for the Blind in Oakland, couldn't work for a week, either.

The owner of the dog received a $300 fine, even less than the maximum $500 fine allowed under Pennsylvania law.

Because of such attacks, Gates and the other nine members of Pittsburgh Guide Dog Users, which is affiliated with the Lutheran center, want stronger penalties imposed on anyone who attacks or whose animal attacks a guide dog.

The group wants to strengthen the state law governing such attacks to include provisions for jail time, higher fines and compensation for a handler's lost wages as well as medical costs for the handler and veterinary costs for the guide dog.

Moreover, it would like the law to call for replacement or retraining of the guide dogs, which cost about $30,000 each and are taught to be trusting and nonaggressive when attacked.

Mates, whose guide dog was also attacked by pit bulls in 1994 and 1998, said his experience was not unique, citing a study that indicated that about one in three guide dogs had been attacked, some fatally. In fact, only two of his group's members have not had their guide dogs attacked. One woman had to retire her dog because of subsequent aggressive behavior and another had to send her dog back to school.

For Zackie, who died in 2000 from old age, "the upshot of all of this was that for the rest of his working days he was very aggressive around other dogs. ... It was a very bad situation for me," Mates said.

Members of Mates' group learned that Utah and Washington have the kinds of laws they're seeking for Pennsylvania. And then they learned that a Montgomery County legislator recently introduced a bill calling for a maximum prison sentence of seven years and a fine up to $15,000 for anyone who harms a guide dog or owns an animal that does. The bill, which has received bipartisan support and is in the House Judiciary Committee, was drafted in reaction to a case in Montgomery County in which a blind man beat his guide dog to death.

In its current form, the legislation doesn't include everything the group wants, but it's a start, Mates said, something that can be built on through amendments.

Group member Judy Goldman, 57, who has used a guide dog since 1997 after having a stroke, said something had to be done.

"It's extremely frightening. You can just imagine going down the street and hearing growling and barking," Goldman said.