3 Rivers Velo Sport

This article provides a summary of the dog attacks or problems that have occurred this year on our club rides, as reported in various posts in the 3RVS Forum and emails. There have been at least seven dog - cyclist incidents this year!

Dogs will continue to be a problem unless a complaint is filed with the police or sheriff's office. Several area numbers are listed below; program them in to your cell phone in case you are attacked.

Even if you are able to out-run or out-ride the problem dog, the next person might not be as lucky.

• July 30 - During a Girls Ride Out ride. A dog ran into the road and forced one of the gals toward the ditch. She went over the bars and broke her shoulder/arm.

• Aug 5 - Patrick Stelte collided with a dog that hit Patrick's front wheel and took him down. Patrick was hospitalized with a collapsed lung.

• August 19 - Kirby Moss crashed as a result of a dog running out in front of him on 500E in Whitley County. He was just finishing up the Wednesday evening Saturn Ride. Kirby was severly injured and hospitalized.

• Sept 11, 13 - Annie (from the Forum) reported an aggressive dog on Friday evening 9/11 and on Sunday evening 9/13. The address is 14313 Aboite Road. It is on the East side of the road---white ranch with red shutters, red address numbers over the garage. It is just south of Lafayette Center Road. They have two labradors. The one that runs out in the street baring its teeth, growling, snarling is a chocolate lab.

• Sept 20 - On 300 South, between 500 East and 600 East,in Whitley County Chuck Bash was attacked by a pack of dogs. They came from a house on the south side of 300 South; I think it was the second house from the west, just east of 5110 of 300 South. The owner was yelling; including yelling that the dogs would be shot next week. Don and I assumed she meant the dogs would get their medical injections next week; not that they would be shot.

• Oct 1 - Annie again reported that the dogs at 14313 Aboite Road were loose again. "Came prepared and blew my whistle continually as I approached the house to get the owner's attention....he wasn't too happy to have to come to his front door to tell his dogs to stay. He was also mad at me for slowing down to take a pic of his dogs loose in the yard. (of course I made sure he had them under control before slowing down!)"

• Oct 6 - Gary Painter said that while he and his team were training today one of the riders hit another dog that ran off her owner's property and into the road. The rider was injured and his bicycle severly damaged. Gary and the guys followed the dog home and confronted the owner, who refused to identify himself or provide any information. The police were called and the owner was cited for failure to control the dog. So you know, the attack happened near the intersection of North River Road and Parent Road in New Haven, Indiana.

As Kathy Boling mentioned in an article on 3RVS website,

Here are some numbers you can call to report the incident:

Please refer to http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/Indiana.html for information regarding dog laws in Indiana. The actual Indiana statute can be found at http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title15/ar20/ch1.html.