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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Vicious Pit Bulls Freely Roam S.F. Housing Projects

San Francisco Examiner

Dangerous canines - often trained for dog fights or as drug dealers’ weapons - roam the city’s public housing projects, endangering tenants and opening the San Francisco Housing Authority to costly litigation.

A jury recently ordered the agency to pay $190,000 to 18-year-old Rasheedah Riles, who was attacked by pit bulls at the Hunter’s View development as she walked across a basketball court.

Riles suffered bites so severe that she nearly had to have a leg amputated, doctors testified.

“It is essential that we take control of the situation,” warned John Salisbury, the head of the Housing Authority’s insurance carrier, in a Nov. 9 letter to agency Executive Director Shirley Thornton.

Although all public housing tenants, except those living in senior housing, are forbidden from keeping dogs, Salisbury concluded:

Pit bulls and Rottweilers roam freely on San Francisco public housing property.

Dogs are trained to fight, and “betting on illegal dog fights is taking place openly on Housing Authority playgrounds and basketball courts.”

Special treadmills to build stamina of the fighting animals have been found in the developments. Housing Authority playground swings, made of tires on chains, “are used to strengthen fighting dogs’ jaws.”

While police have notified the Housing Authority of hundreds of felony arrests of drug dealers, few have been evicted for unlawfully keeping a dog.

Housing Authority spokesman Ron Sonenshine says the agency has begun to evict tenants for having dogs.

Officer Tom Kracke, the Police Department-Housing Authority liaison, says the agency evicted a total of three tenants for dog ownership during November and December.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Vera Kennedy, a Hunter’s View resident. “Doesn’t Housing know we have little children around here? We have at least one serious dog bite a month. Last month, it was a little boy who was bitten in the hand.”

Kennedy, who is suing the Housing Authority to enforce its no-pets policy, says 50 to 100 pit bulls are in the 300-unit Hunter’s View development.

The dogs that attacked Riles had been on leashes when the owner let them go to attack two men who had jumped a fence.

Riles was walking nearby when she heard the words, “Sic ‘em.” Apparently frustrated because they couldn’t get at the men, the pit bulls charged her, Riles says.

“One jumped at my neck, and the other tore my coat,” she said. Riles fended off one dog, but the other locked onto her leg. “I was in shock - it was me and him in our own little world,” she said.

A bystander repeatedly smashed the dog over the head with a large radio before it let go, said Riles.

Dog fights take place about once a week at Hunter’s View, say residents. The dogs who lose often suffer horrible fates.

One dog in Hunter’s View was reportedly tied to the back of a bus and dragged four blocks before it was rescued, says Capt. Tim Hettrick of Potrero Station. Hettrick also had reports of dogs set ablaze with lighter fluid.