“In Maryland now, if your pit bull bites, negligence no longer needs to be proven. Under the ruling, not just pit bull owners, but landlords who have the dogs living on their property are now liable for their actions … Colleen Lynn, who runs an education website about dangerous dogs called DogsBite.org, wrote a brief to the Maryland court supporting the decision. She told CBS News, “When they attack, they don’t stop. This is what ends up killing people. Pit bulls are the top killing dog breed.”

View: Related news article

Maryland Court of Appeals Holds Pit Bull Owners and Landlords Accountable After an Attack
Baltimore, MD – In January, DogsBite.org announced our filing of an amicus brief in a landmark Maryland appeals case, Tracey v. Solesky, in hopes of expanding more liability out to landlords when a tenant’s pit bull attacks. The case involves the parents of a young boy seeking damages for injuries inflicted by a pit bull owned by a landlord’s tenant. Also at issue is the “dangerousness” of pit bulls being “well-recognized,” as determined in the 1998 case, Matthews v. Amberwood.

In Matthews, the Court of Appeals of Maryland ruled in a 4-3 vote that the landlord could have taken steps to abate the danger of a pit bull kept by a tenant when the landlord knew of the dog’s presence and was aware of the dog’s dangerousness. It was our hope that the Solesky opinion would expand Matthews further. On April 26, 2012, the Court of Appeals, in another 4-3 vote, did expand it and with great clarity by attaching strict liability when a pit bull or pit bull-cross attacks.

See: Full blog post
See: Tracey v. Solesky, Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2012
See: Amicus brief in support of plaintiff

It’s just a fact: Democracy doesn’t work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn’t work much better than trickle down economics. It’s also a fact that civilization happens because we don’t leave things to other people. What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it — as if the cause depends on you, because it does.

-Bill Moyers
This is Your Story – The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.
June 10, 2003

You may not have money for in-depth documentaries or other high-end productions but you have cameras, microphones, studios and the trust of the community. You can be the ombudsman for the public within your reach, provide the venue for forums, teach-ins, town meetings, and debates over the issues that matter to people where they live, telecast in an atmosphere of openness and clarity without the mean and mindless rhetoric or cant that are so triumphant today. Civic engagement is the lifeblood of democracy and the bedrock of its legitimacy. No media can nurture, foster, and empower it the way we can.

-Bill Moyers
The Pivotal Role of Public Television
November 16, 2011

Thank you Colleen … After my child’s attack, your website was the first one that comforted me, because I saw I wasn’t only in wondering why, so many why’s … I try to follow in your groundbreaking footsteps, and advocate for victims, thank you for your bravery and continued hard work. – Anne King

Read more comments about DogsBite.org and Colleen Lynn.