The Huntsville Times, Sunday, September 23, 2007 A19

such as people who want a dog
Dogs
Continued from page A13
reported.
Yet the three breeds classi-
fied as pit bulls regularly score
above the norm, an 81.5 per-
know if it got up and ran away
Huntsville Animal
Services shelter
that hasn’t been spayed or
neutered, or applicants who list
the dog’s primary home as a
or someone stole it.”
Solution to the problem Man in porn case,
Houses animals in the
backyard. Virgie Graham didn’t hear
city of Huntsville and Madi-
son County, with the excep-
tion of the city of Madison.

Entire shelter (includes

cent passing rate, during tem-
perament testing, according to
the American Temperament
Testing Society.
The nonprofit association
tested about 215 breeds and
more than 27,000 dogs as of
December. American Pit Bull
Terriers have an 84.1 percent
passing rate. American
Staffordshire Terriers have an
83.9 percent passing rate, while
85.2 percent of Staffordshire
Bull Terriers pass the test.
It’s difficult to say, though,
how a pit bull will react in every
situation based on a 12-minute
test, said Madison County An-
imal Control Director Mike
Fritz.
“The natural programming
of the pit bull is to fight,” Fritz
said. “People do talk about the
loyalty of the dog. That’s all part
of the design of that breed.”
Pit bulls are specifically bred
not to be aggressive toward hu-
mans, Fritz said. They were
originally bred to fight other
dogs, and the rules of dog-
fighting dictate that dog own-
ers must be able to control their
dogs.
“Yes, there are people who
are hurt and mauled, but that’s
probably bad breeding as op-
posed to the natural instincts
of the dog,” he said.
Fritz gets calls at least once
at a day about roaming pit bulls,
and some days county animal
control officers have to pick up
as many as eight.
People buy the dogs without
doing any research on them
and later dump them because
they’re not what they expected,
Fritz said.
“They don’t know what
they’ve got,” he said. “I think a
lot of people get them as a sta-
tus symbol.”
Bred for violence
Many people buy pit bulls
because they look tough, said
Chrissy Barribeau, a dog train-
er at Huntsville Obedience
Training Club.
But just because the dog
looks tough doesn’t mean it can
survive being tethered by a
heavy chain in a barren back-
yard.
Socialization is key for any
dog, Barribeau said, but it’s crit-
ical for pit bulls to be around
other dogs when they’re young.
Like shepherds are born to
herd, pit bulls are born to fight
other dogs.
“I don’t think a pit bull is any
harder to train than another
dog, but they do have certain
traits that have to be worked
with,” she said. “Ignorance
plays a big role in what’s hap-
pening with pit bulls.”
That ignorance of basic dog
care results in neglected dogs,
said Gwen Ralph, a local vol-
unteer for the nonprofit pit-bull
rescue group Turtle Moon.
The lack of socialization and
neglect, combined with in-
breeding – a technique that
dogfighters use to make their
dogs more aggressive – creates
violent, unstable pit bulls,
Ralph said.
Although many of the dogs
Ralph sees are docile or can be
rehabilitated, the Lineville-
based rescue group occasion-
ally has to send some dogs to
be destroyed.
Ralph said five 12-week-old
puppies were euthanized this
year because of their aggressive
tendencies, a trait that should
not appear in puppies that
young.
“It’s just like with humans,”
cats, dogs and other ani-
mals)
Intake
9,595
Live release*
2,442
Live release rate 34%
Euthanized
7,153
Pit bulls and pit-bull
mixes
Intake
1,058
Live release**
185
Live release rate 21%
Euthanized
873
* Includes adoptions,
rescues and returns to
owners
** Five American Bull-
dogs passed temperament
testing and were adopted.
The other pit bulls were
sent to rescue groups or re-
turned to owners.
Numbers from 2006
fects.”
The inbred viciousness is a
trait sought by people who
want the dogs as status sym-
bols or macho accessories, said
Michael Foote, a New Hope
resident who owns six pit bulls
and seven pit-bull puppies.
Often, Foote said, those peo-
ple get the mean dogs they’re
looking for – at the expense of
the dogs.
“No dog is born vicious. It’s
made that way,” he said. “Can
you look at me and rationally
say, ‘I believe every single one
of these dogs have developed
some congenital disease to be
aggressive toward people’?”
That’s the perception, Foote
said, and policies such as that
of Huntsville Animal Services
don’t help the stigma.
But Sheppard said it’s not
just a pit-bull problem. The
shelter receives about 9,500
animals a year, and more than
7,000 of those animals have to
be destroyed, some because of
temperament, others because
of illness, age or simply the shel-
ter’s lack of space for so many
dogs.
No place to call home
Turtle Moon has seen 126 pit
bulls this year. More than 339
people have contacted the non-
profit wanting to adopt – or
dump – a pit bull.
The group’s adoption rate
hovers around 20 percent.
The application process is so
stringent, Ralph said, that
some applicants have said it’s
easier to adopt a baby than a
pit bull.
“We’re just picky about
where our babies go,” she said.
The rescue group watches
for red flags in its applications,
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Both the rescue group and
Huntsville Animal Services
perform temperament testing
on the dogs if they’re being con-
sidered for adoption.
“Our goal is to never put a
bad dog back in society,” Ralph
said.
Huntsville Animal Services
allowed five American bulldogs
to be adopted in 2006 after
they passed the Safety Assess-
ment for Evaluating Rehom-
ing, or SAFER, temperament
test.
The test measures the dog’s
response to situations involving
people, other dogs and cats.
“We’re very careful when
we do these tests,” Sheppard
said. “Even if the dog tries to kill
the cat, that doesn’t mean we
won’t adopt it. We just warn the
people about what they’re get-
ting into.”
Dogs a liability?
Sept. 12, Huntsville – A pit
bull escapes from its home on
Blue Spring Road and kills a
poodle on nearby Shadow
Lawn Drive.
Aug. 24, Anniston – A 51-
year-old woman ends up in in-
tensive care after four pit bulls
attack her near Blue Mountain.
July 29, Huntsville – A
grandmother is seriously in-
jured when her neighbor’s pit
bull attacks her, leaving bite
marks on her arms and hands.
June 8, Golden Springs – A
woman has to get 60 stitches in
her leg after a pit bull attacks
her and her poodle during an
afternoon walk.
It’s a mystery why these
dogs choose to bite, but to
Ralph at Turtle Moon Rescue,
it’s no surprise that more bite
reports are showing up in the
news.
There are too many pit bulls
across the country, she said,
and more dogs means more at-
tacks. “I used to get really upset
because the shelter euthanized
most of those dogs, but they
don’t have the resources to
screen all these people,” she
said. “I would rather see them
euthanized than sold to fight-
ers.”
It’s hard to know where all
these dogs come from and
where they go, said Fritz and
Sheppard of the county and city
animal services. Adding to the
uncertainty is the theft of pit-
bull puppies, which investiga-
tors with the Huntsville Police
Department estimate are stolen
every other week or so.
Sgt. Wayne West, an inves-
tigator with the west precinct,
said it’s hard to find the truth
behind these thefts.
“Whenever we have a dog
theft, it’s almost always a pit
bull, and usually a puppy,” he
said. “But other property can’t
get up and walk off. We don’t
00507360
much about pit bulls when he
became a Huntsville Animal
Services officer 18 years ago.
But he sees them often now,
roaming around town and
tugging on chains in backyards.
He’s familiar with the signs
of a pit-bull home – broken
chains around trees; stakes,
bricks and even grocery carts
used to reinforce ragged chain-
link fences.
That’s not the kind of home
a pit bull should have, Graham
said.
“I think if we could get the
information out, then we could
cut down on the pit-bull prob-
lem, and on a lot of the city’s
problems with dogs,” he said.
It’s a matter of education, he
said. That’s the key.
Graham’s other solution?
Stop it.
Stop the breeding. Stop the
dumping. Stop the fighting.
That’s Ralph’s solution, too.
And Foote’s, and Fritz’s.
Legislation banning certain
breeds only adds to the prob-
lem, they say. Irondale, Mid-
field, Gadsden, Lannett, Or-
ange Beach and Warrior have
either banned the dog or
adopted restraint require-
ments.
This legislation only pre-
vents responsible owners from
getting the dogs, dog trainer
Barribeau said.
And once responsible own-
ers drop out of the picture, Bar-
ribeau said, all that’s left are the
people who have no regard for
the law.
So why should these people
have any regard for what they
consider an accessory?
Another one gone
It’s been more than the five-
to seven-day grace period for
No. 24.
Shelter workers decide that
her odd appearance – the mis-
matched eyes, the missing fur,
the scars and sagging skin
from mothering many litters of
puppies – won’t attract a fam-
ily looking for a cuddly house
pet.
The dog didn’t have a collar,
and her owner never claimed
her.
No. 24 is dead.
wife are suicides
Michael Cometa
was psychologist
in Huntsville
By DAVID FERRARA
Mobile Press-Register
MOBILE – A former
Huntsville psychologist facing
child pornography charges and
his wife killed themselves Friday
under a Baldwin County beach-
front home.
Michael Stephen Cometa,
59, and Keri Cometa, 45, of
Trenton, Ga., died of self-in-
flicted gunshot wounds under
the stilted duplex along Fort
Morgan Road, according to
Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office
spokesman Anthony Lowery.
Earlier that day, Michael
Cometa failed to appear for an
arraignment hearing in Madi-
son County Circuit Court, his at-
torney, Larry Morgan, said Sat-
urday.
Cometa was accused of video-
taping a nude 16-year-old girl
in his office, Morgan said.
A report in The Huntsville
Times, citing the indictment,
stated that the girl was under 16,
and police said she was a client.
Cometa was charged in 2004
with six counts of production of
obscene matter and one count
of possession of obscene mate-
rial. The charges did not allege
that Cometa had touched the
girl in a sexual way, Morgan said.
Cometa was free on bail
pending his Oct. 29 trial. Pros-
ecutors were prepared to rec-
ommend that Cometa spend
five years in prison and five years
on probation, Morgan told The
Times.
In March, after a bank fore-
closed on Cometa’s Huntsville
home and he filed for bank-
ruptcy, he and his wife moved
to Georgia, and he did not
renew his license to practice psy-
chology, Morgan said.
“His life was absolutely
turned upside down as a result
of the whole incident,” Morgan
said. “He couldn’t practice, his
home was foreclosed, his wife
was seriously ill.
“He paid a big price for his in-
volvement in this situation,” he
told The Times.
Cometa was the sole provider
for his wife, and “if he had gone
to prison, there would be no-
body there for her,” Morgan said.
Morgan said his client “was
very remorseful and very con-
trite” over the charges he faced.
He said he and Cometa were
trying to delay court action in
the criminal case while trying to
help the victim win a declara-
tory judgment from U.S. District
Judge Lywood Smith that
Cometa’s malpractice insur-
ance company should pay her
damages.
Cometa was arrested about
six months after his previous
wife and secretary, Stephanie,
31, committed suicide in No-
vember 2003.
On the Web site therapis-
tratings.com, where people can
anonymously review therapists,
three comments were about
Cometa. One was positive.
Another, posted by a 21-
year-old named Courtney from
Huntsville, said she started see-
ing Cometa when she was 16.
“He kept telling me I should
be a model,” Courtney wrote. “To
make a long story short, one
year later I am being called ...
(by) an investigator to look at
pictures of girls to see if I rec-
ognize them.”
On Friday, a witness report-
ed hearing two loud blasts, and
the bodies were discovered
about 5 p.m. Inside a Jeep
Grand Cherokee parked near
the bodies, the couple left sep-
arate notes that indicated their
suicide intentions, according
to Lowery.
Investigators found two shot-
guns at the scene.
There was nothing to suggest
the couple had ties to South Al-
abama, Lowery said. The two
were not renting the vacation
home.

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Ralph said. “When you start in- services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal
breeding, you have genetic de- services provided by other lawyers.

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