Sonoma County Animal Control

Dog lovers protest Sonoma councilwoman's pit-bull comments

Joanne Sanders insisted that she never was seeking such a ban, despite telling a reporter that she “personally supports” taking that action, not only in her city, but for all of Sonoma County.

“That's how strongly I feel about these dogs,” Sanders said last week.

But Sanders, who is the city's pro-tem mayor, sought to distance herself from those remarks this week after she and other city leaders were deluged with angry emails and phone calls. Sanders said one person changed the profile picture on a Facebook page to include one of her with a line through her face.

Sanders says that her critics misinterpreted her personal opinion about banning pit bulls to mean that she would be advocating that position for the city, and that all along, she simply wanted her fellow council members to consider “options” for regulating vicious dogs.

That's done little to sway animal advocates. Bob Edwards, president of Sonoma Valley Dog Owners and Guardians, called Sanders' efforts “an unhelpful solution to a non-problem.”

Sanders first broached the subject of canine regulations at an Aug. 15 City Council meeting in which she spoke of the death of a pregnant Pacifica woman who was mauled to death by her own pet, a pit-bull named Gunner.

The Aug. 11 fatality re-ignited the long-running debate over whether pit bulls and other dog breeds are inherently dangerous. The dog involved in the Pacifica attack was an unneutered two-year-old male pit bull.

Sanders asked city staff and Police Chief Bret Sackett to research what Sonoma does to regulate vicious dogs.

In a subsequent interview, Sanders singled out pit bulls and Presa Canarios as the focus of her concern. Two Presa Canarios in 2001 attacked and killed Diane Whipple outside of her San Francisco apartment.

Sanders said the last time city leaders considered the topic was in 2005 when they debated whether to endorse proposed legislation in Sacramento that would allow municipalities to mandate that owners of certain dog breeds spay or neuter their pets.

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