Ruralite Cafe: Published 03/27/03

By Lisa Majors-Duff - News Editor

Runners and dogs do not need to mix

But bite my running partner in the butt, and suddenly I'm more than interested in what happens when a person gets bit by a dog in Jackson County.

Here's what happened to make me enroll in "Dog Bite 101." Since my knee has mostly healed (or it's as good as it's going to get), I decided a couple weeks ago to start training for the Cooper River Bridge Run. A 10K held the first Saturday in April, the race draws some 30,000 physically-fit individuals to Charleston, S.C., and gets them to run, mostly in pack formation, from Mount Pleasant to the beautiful downtown business district.

It's called the "Bridge Run" because the route takes runners up and over two of the oldest bridges that cross the Cooper River, an portion of the Intercoastal Waterway.

After taking about a month off to let the knee injury subside, I was concerned that 6.2 miles would be more of a challenge than I could handle. My running experience to this point includes a 5K here and there and one 8K in Maggie Valley last summer that just about killed me; therefore, training requires I log 6-plus miles at least once a week until race day.

Last Sunday's run from Dillsboro to Webster (known to locals as North River Road, but known to local runners as the Smoky Streak, a 5K race held in the fall to benefit the WestCare Foundation) and back to Dillsboro felt great. The knee didn't act up and the lungs hung in there. One 6-plus distance covered, no problem.

A few shorter runs during the following week (twice on the running trail at Western Carolina University and twice on the Greening Up the Mountains course from Sylva to Dillsboro and back) also felt good. It was time to push the envelope slightly and go for 7 miles.

So back to Dillsboro we went this Sunday with one thing on our minds - a hour's worth of fresh-air-sucking, sweat-provoking, pound-the-pavement running, running, running. We knew the course and the few vehicles that drove by were, for the most part, operated by polite drivers who moved over to avoid knocking us down.

About a mile into the run, I mentioned to my running partner (whose name is being withheld to avoid the obvious embarrassment to follow) that one day last week on Old Dillsboro Road a dog that looked more like a large rat came rushing at me from a driveway.

"I wasn't afraid it would bite me," I said. "I was more afraid it would trip me or that I would squash it like a bug."

Not a half mile later, as I concentrated on the fishermen on the side of the road, the barking began. Immediately I lost sight of my partner, who I heard issuing a list of four-letter words.

"Keep running," I yelled. "He'll back off."

"That son of a b***h bit me," my partner said, of course not realizing just how accurately he'd spoken.

"Run in front of me and let me see," I said. (No, I wasn't going to stop, and to his credit, neither did he.)

Sure enough, about an inch below his right butt cheek I saw the blood soaking into his shorts.

Back at the car, I suggested we drive up to the Sheriff's Office and find out what to do. We needed to know if the dog had been vaccinated for rabies, but I was in no frame of mind to find out on my own. The officers on duty took our names and cell phone numbers and said they would put in a call to animal control.

Great, I thought, my old friend Chris Tyson would know exactly what to do. And he did. We rode out to the spot with Chris, who told the dog's owner what happened and informed him that the beagle would need to be quarantined for 10 days. He could have kept the dog at home, Chris said, if he could have proven it had been vaccinated.

"Rabies only sheds in the last 10 days of a dog's life," Chris told me after I'd showered and gotten some Gatorade in my system. "It's important when we quarantine an animal that the owner knows we are not going to hurt it. Only a judge can order a dog, or cat for that matter, to be destroyed."

Dog bites in Jackson County are increasing, Chris said. My running partner was the sixth person to be bitten this month, on the way to a predicted 100 incidents this year. Animal control is required to investigate all reported dog bite cases and determine how they happened. More often people on bikes are bitten by dogs, as opposed to those running, he said.

While it's unlikely the dog that bit my partner will show signs of rabies, post-exposure treatments would be needed if it does, Chris said. But not to worry, the five-shot series doesn't even hurt, he said.

When a dog-related situation calls for law enforcement or animal control intervention, Chris has for years lobbied for the ability to issue a civil citation, which, like a parking ticket, would fine an irresponsible dog owner, one who has not vaccinated his animal or had it spayed or neutered.

As it stands now, he said, a criminal summons must be issued, requiring both the animal control officer and the dog owner to appear in court.

"I also think we need a leash law," he continued, though he pointed out that such legislation may not have prevented the bite my partner suffered. Under a regulation of this type, dog owners would be required to keep their animals on their property or keep them on a lease when not on their property. And hunters needed not worry, he said, because they are protected by state laws that allow them to hunt with their dogs.

Chris started to explain to me the state's dangerous dog legislation, but I knew we would not be pursuing this course of action. This male dog, which was sweet and docile when we returned, was protecting a female on the same property who was in heat. Should animal control get any more calls about the dog, though, it'll be a different story, Chris said.

Our pets, the loyalist of companions, can cause great waves of negative emotions in others when they are caught going through our neighbor's garbage or barking at who-knows-what at 2 a.m. or attacking prize laying hens. Some have even been known to deny ownership under such circumstances.

But the right thing to do, said Chris, is whatever it takes to keep your dog on your property.

Back to Archive: 03/27/03.