Alert: HB 992 - Dangerous Dogs Bill to be heard in the MO House Monday, March 29th; Your testimony of dangerous dog situations while bicycling needed

Barry Bean of Peach Orchard has been leading the charge for several years to get a dangerous dog bill passed in Missouri, to address the issues of loose dogs that attack and injury people bicycling. Barry was seriously injured in a collision with a dog several years ago.

Missouri Representative Jamie Burger of Benton, in the Missouri bootheel, is HB 992 sponsor. HB 992 provides penalties for dog owners who let their dogs run loose to attack and injure people bicycling on public roads

This year the Dangerous Dogs Bill is HB 992, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Burger of Benton.

A hearing on HB 992 in the Missouri House Crime Prevention Committee is scheduled for Monday, March 29th at Noon. The hearing will be in House Hearing Room 5 at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. 

Testimony in support of HB 992 needed through Monday, April 5th

Testimony in support of the bill is welcome from any individual and from clubs, groups, organizations, and businesses.

You can testify in person at the hearing or submit written testimony online here (submission of written testimony strongly encouraged thanks to COVID-19 issues).

We know that dangerous dogs are a serious issue for people who bicycle and walk all around Missouri.

We encourage individuals, organizations, and businesses to submit testimony in support of HB 992.

Typically, the House committee will vote on a bill one week after the public hearing. So testimony in favor of HB 992 will be helpful if submitted by that time---noon on Monday, April 5th, 2021.

Sample Written Testimony in support of HB 992, the Missouri Dangerous Dogs bill

• Chairman Roberts and Crime Prevention Committee Members,
   
• Briefly introduce yourself, explain who you are, where you live, and any organizations/businesses you represent or belong to.
  

  Dogs love to run - but when they are allowed to chase people bicycling on a public road, it is not safe for the dogs or for the people bicycling
  
   
• You might briefly explain why cycling is important to you and to your community or part of the state.
   
• Say that you support HB 992 and that dangerous dogs are a serious safety problem for people who bicycle in Missouri. HB 992 will help address the issue that dogs that repeatedly run loose and cause people bicycling to crash, cannot be addressed under Missouri's current dangerous dogs statute.
   
• If a dog bites someone, the situation can be handled under the dangerous dogs statute.  But if the dog causes a person bicycling to crash--even causing very serious crashes on multiple occasions--the current law does not allow law enforcement officials to take needed action to solve the public safety issue.
   
• If you can, give personal examples or examples from your family, friends, or acquaintances that show what a serious problem dangerous and loose dogs are to people who bicycle in MIssouri.

ABOUT HB 992 - the details

As in previous years, HB 992 addresses the issue of dangerous dogs in a very simple way. Missouri already has a dangerous dog statute that deals with dogs that bite--578.024 RSMo. The details of that statute are long-standing--they have been in place since 2009 or earlier. The statue generally seems to work well and has the support of both past and current legislators as currently written.

People who bicycle on public roads in Missouri--both remote rural roads and roads in cities and towns--can be harassed and injured by dogs allowed to run loose. HB 992 will help address that situation.

The current bill defines a dangerous dog as one that has bitten someone on more than one occasion.  The proposal in HB 992 is to add the words "or physically injured" to the definition, so that a dog that has bitten or physically injured a person on more than one occasion will be considered a dangerous dog.

This accounts for cases where a dog, for example, runs loose in front of a person on a bicycle, causing a crash.  Under current law, this cannot be considered a "dangerous dog" situation unless the dog also bites the person.

Under HB 992, a dog that runs out on the road and causes bicyclist crashes repeatedly would be considered a dangerous dog, even if the dog simply causes a crash and never bites the crash victim.

We all know of situations where a loose dog can repeatedly be found in the same location, and endangers traveling cyclists over and over again. This gives law enforcement the tools they need to deal with a situation of that type, requiring the owner to control the animal or taking steps to charge the owner if the owner repeatedly does not comply, resulting in multiple dangerous situations and crashes.

Note that slight injuries result in merely a class B misdemeanor. However, the seriousness of the charges rises with the degree of injury.  A serious injury becomes a class A misdemeanor, repeated serious injury is a class E felony, and if death results from the attack, it is a class D felony. All of these penalties currently exist in Missouri's dangerous dogs statute.

The change HB 992 will bring is that all of these penalties will now apply to dog owners that allow their dogs to run loose and cause injury to people bicycling on public roads.

More information about HB 992 and dangerous dogs in Missouri

• HB 992 bill page is here
   

• Full text of HB 992 (as introduced) is here
   

• Information about the 2020 version of the Dangerous Dogs Bill is here
   

• MoBikeFed has been collecting stories of people injured by dogs while bicycling. If you know of any such stories, please forward them to director@mobikefed.org
   

• About current Missouri dog law, and what to do if you are injured or bitten by a dog while cycling

Improving safety for all road users is one of the four major objectives in MoBikeFed's Vision of Bicycling and Walking in Missouri. Helping support passage of important safety bills like HB 992, the Dangerous Dogs Bill, is one way we work towards achieving that objective.

Your ongoing membership and generous financial support help make our Vision into reality!

Photo credits:

• Jamie Burger: Missouri House of Representatives, official photo
• Running with Beagles: John Holt on FlickR, license: CC BY 2.0
• Bicyclist on rural highway: MoBikeFed