See the article at this link below:

2021 Dog Bite Fatality: 91-Year Old Woman Killed by a Pet Rottweiler While Living at Her Daughter’s Home – DogsBite Blog

My own experience is this. In spring of 2021, I was approached by an off-leash Rottweiller in Bear Creek Nature Park. The dog was barking / growling at me and had it’s ears back, never a good sign. I had lots of experience with avoiding dog bites from my bicycle paper-route years. I froze and avoided eye-contact with the dog. The owner, after a lot of fumbling, got the dog on a leash. Whew!!!.

After that I did not go into Bear Creek Nature Park without a stout walking stick and my Dad’s old hunting knife for protection. That year I gathered data on how many off-leash dogs I encountered in Bear Creek Nature Park. On 13 visits, from March 8 to May 6th, 2021, I encountered 58 dogs, 15 or 26% were off-leash.Some municipalities have enacted ordinances to ban certain dog breeds; Waterford for example, banns Pitt Bulls. Their Supervisor told that their motivatiom was that one of their residents was killed by a Pitt Bull that broke through her screen door. Oakland Township has no such ordinances.

Periodically, in the last few years, bills have been introduced to the Michigan State Legislature to not allow townships to enact ordinances banning certain breeds. Such bills have all “died” in committee so far. Some local residents have been active in speaking against such bills at legislative committee meetings.

My opinion is that our Board should consider whether to not to have such an ordinance. If they are unable to find the time to address this issue, they should appoint a special citizens committee to do so. By consider I mean compare having an ordinance to not having one as the first step. While, I would be in favor of such an ordinance, I would accept the views of a group of people doing a serious consideration of the two options in public meetings.

Bob Yager – Editor and Resident (Not a township official)