LAKEWOOD, Ohio — For a little girl with a debilitating disease, her dog is a vital part of her life.
Aleeah Williams, 4, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at just 3 days old. Scrappy helps her cope with rigorous daily treatments.
Aleeah, her father, Tyler Williams, and their two dogs moved in with her grandmother, Elizabeth Spais of Lakewood, in November to help manage the girl’s medical needs.
City animal control visited their home a few weeks ago claiming Scrappy is a “pit bull,” which have been banned inside city limits since 2008.
“I have no idea what he is,” Mrs. Spais said. “We also have his littermate, but they weren’t worried about her. How can one be [a ‘pit bull’] and the other not be if they have the same parents?”
The family is waiting for the results of a DNA test to determine Scrappy’s breed mix. He will have to be removed from city limits if test results show he is 51 percent or more Staffordshire bull terrier, American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, or any combination of those breeds totaling at least 51 percent.
Presa Canarios and predominant mixes of Presa Canarios are also banned in Lakewood.
An administrative hearing on the matter is slated for Feb. 23, the outcome of which can be appealed in court.
A petition at change.org that calls for the city to allow Scrappy to stay with Aleeah and institute breed-neutral laws has garnered more than 128,500 signatures from across the country.
Sam O’Leary, president of the city council, said the matter must proceed as the law requires. But several council members “have expressed a willingness to revisit this at some time in the near future.”
“There are a lot of potential policy avenues we can use to come at this problem,” Mr. O’Leary said. “But which ones ultimately get identified as a solution remains to be seen.”
Along with various breathing treatments, Aleeah uses a compression vest twice daily that shakes her chest vigorously. It loosens the mucus that builds up in her lungs so she can cough it up.
“It was a fight to get her to do her medication and her treatment,” Mrs. Spais said. “She hated it.”
Mr. Williams got two 8-week-old puppies a year ago, giving Scrappy to Aleeah to distract her during treatments. It worked, and the girl began completing her treatments willingly.
“She would sit there and hold [Scrappy], rock him like a baby, and sing to him,” Mrs. Spais said. “She made up this song, ‘The Scrappy Song,’ that she sings.”
Aleeah and her dog are inseparable. Scrappy goes to her side when he hears the nebulizer or vest turn on. With the dog helping Aleeah tolerate her treatments, the girl has stayed healthier overall than she ever has before, Mrs. Spais said.
Scrappy also helped Aleeah recover from third-degree burns after she was struck by fireworks July 4 while walking with her father. The dog comforted her when the burns had to be scrubbed.
“It was horrid,” Mrs. Spais said. “She would shake and urinate on herself it was so painful. The dog would just lay his head right on her lap and she’d squeeze his paw or his head until it was done.”
Scrappy is not a certified service animal, which would be exempt from the city’s ban. Mrs. Spais said the dog has never shown any kind of aggression, nor has he ever gotten loose.
“He’s a very docile dog, a very laid-back kind of dog,” she said. “If birds are out swooping around the yard, he’s scared to death of the birds.”
Mrs. Spais contacted Kerry Stack, a trainer and dog advocate who owns Darwin Dogs in Lakewood, desperate for help to fight the city’s law. Mrs. Stack took up the family’s cause, and is organizing a campaign to keep Scrappy with Aleeah and change the city law.
“There’s no precedent for this dog to be taken,” Mrs. Stack said. “He is thoroughly devoted to his little girl. There isn’t a harmful bone in his body. We’re looking at taking away something from her that makes this horrible disease a little easier for her to bear.”
While city officials presumably intended to keep residents safe from problem canines, she said, the misguided notion that any breed is inherently more dangerous than another winds up also punishing responsible dog owners, their families, and good dogs like Scrappy.
“I see no reason why a city like Lakewood that’s grounded in diversity would ever maintain a law like this on our books,” she said.
Mrs. Stack has addressed city council and created the online petition.
“Every time I look at that petition, I’m just overwhelmed” by the support, Mrs. Spais said.
Jean Keating of Sylvania is a board member of the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates that was a driving force behind Ohio’s 2012 removal of breed-specific language in state dog laws. She said Scrappy and Aleeah’s story is a very poignant example of the human consequences of such laws that still exist in some municipalities.
“This child has a very debilitating and incurable condition, and a mixed-breed dog,” Ms. Keating said. “Now they’re looking at the possibility of having this one thing that offers that child some comfort ripped away from her. That’s the ugly side of what these laws do. To rip that dog from her, I don’t know how anyone could go home at night and look themselves in the mirror and sleep well.”
She also noted that identifying the genetic makeup of a mixed-breed dog like Scrappy visually is impossible. To base a law on a dog’s appearance instead of its behavior puts dogs of all breeds at risk of falling victim to Lakewood’s ban.
“Even experts can’t identify breeds in a mixed-breed dog,” she said. “For [city officials] to stand behind an unenforceable, and, really, unconstitutional law is ridiculous. My hope is that this will finally be the situation that brings a sense of reason to city council.”
Mr. O’Leary said he personally does not agree with the city’s law and would support its repeal.
“The state has acknowledged that breed specificity has no place in the law,” he said. “When the state legislature changes a law because it has no scientific basis, you know your local law might be a bit backwards.”
Aleeah knows someone is trying to take Scrappy, but doesn’t understand why and becomes very upset when anyone talks about it.
“I can’t even fathom looking at her face and having to tell her Scrappy has to go,” Mrs. Spais said.
If the city insists Scrappy must leave, the family will house him temporarily with a friend while Mr. Williams looks for somewhere else to live. But separating Scrappy from Aleeah will likely have serious consequences for the girl’s physical and mental health.
“I don’t know what it would be like fighting with her to do her treatments without Scrappy,” Mrs. Spais said. “That will be extremely stressful for Aleeah.”
If father and daughter move out, that will also seriously affect Mrs. Spais’ ability to assist with Aleeah’s care.
“I’m just hoping the city will be willing to look at all of it, the whole aspect of what this is going to do to her,” Mrs. Spais said.
Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.
First Published January 30, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
