Dog Owners Expect More Fear

A lot of growling and snapping could be heard at dog parks Saturday--but it was mainly from humans voicing strong opinions about the San Francisco lawyer who was found guilty of murder last week in the fatal dog mauling of her neighbor.

With a few exceptions, the strains of outrage went like this:

“The verdict is right on--the people were responsible,” said Michelle German, a professional dog trainer. “As dog owners, we are responsible for everything a dog does, how it behaves, how it interacts with people.”

Many owners of large dogs, or dogs often perceived as dangerous, such as pit bulls and Dobermans, said they are bracing themselves for little public tolerance for aggressive behavior and for increased wariness toward big breeds.

“People who don’t have dogs will have fear,” said Michael Levy, 62, of Laurel Canyon, owner of two mixed English bull and mastiff breeds. The female, Beauvoir, weighs 85 pounds. The male, Spartacus, weighs 130 pounds. “People who are already afraid of dogs will now have tremendous fear.”

“I feel like people ... are going to panic when they see me,” said Tara Moore, 31, owner of 3-year-old Kodiac, a strong brown 70-pound Chesapeake Bay retriever. “I’m just going to be 100% committed to keeping him on a leash at all times.”

Except at the Silver Lake Recreation Center, where Kodiac could outrun and out-fetch nearly all of the 30 or so in the park.

The few highly popular dog parks throughout the region attract owners who want their pets to run free, and, as they like to say, “socialize” with other pooches. Much as children do at regular parks, the dogs play rambunctiously: running, rolling and, at times, fighting. The owners, acting like parents of children, sip coffee and chat with one another on benches, while keeping one keen eye on their pets romping in the dirt.

At dog parks Saturday from Laurel Canyon to Silver Lake to Laguna Beach, talk turned from flea infestations and training schools to the ramifications of the verdicts in the widely watched trial. The case represents the first time in California that a dog owner has been convicted of murder for a mauling.

“I don’t feel bad at all for those dog owners or their dogs,” said Claudia Bennett of Mount Washington, who owns four dogs that she rescued from death at animal shelters. “The general rule is, dogs are what the owners make them.”

Marjorie Knoller, whose two 100-pound Presa Canario dogs attacked and killed 33-year-old Diane Whipple in a hall of their Pacific Heights apartment building, was found guilty of second-degree murder and could serve 15 years to life in prison. Her husband, Robert Noel, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and faces a possible four years in state prison.

Jurors said the owners were clearly responsible for the attack. The case included testimony that linked the defendants to two members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, who authorities said ran an illegal dog-breeding operation. The dogs were destroyed.

Like other dog lovers, Richard Wennerberg, 42, a Laguna Beach dog sitter, said the case was an aberration that spoke more about Knoller and Noel than the dogs they owned.

He was at a park with his dog Saint, a 4-year-old Labrador and German shepherd mix, and guard dog Brutus, a muscular 6-year-old Rottweiler, who, he said, has never bitten anyone.

Wennerberg doesn’t believe that certain breeds are inherently vicious. The breeds “are just names we give dogs. Those dogs were raised by prison people,” he said of Knoller’s pair.

“I know I’m in control, and that lady was not in control,” he said. “I’m the human, and he’s the dog.”

At Laurel Canyon Dog Park, the birthplace of Los Angeles’ leash-free areas, the owner of a 120-pound mastiff said he is worried that the case will encourage lawsuits over pets.

“You’re opening yourself up to liability, even taking your dog with you to get a cup of coffee,” he said. “If it bites someone, you open yourself up for a lawsuit.”

The mastiff wandered up to a smaller, white dog, and the two growled. The mastiff yapped at it. “You just saw a little bit of aggression coming out,” the owner said.

Courtney Van Ess owns two Akitas, both weighing about 100 pounds. They are broad-chested dogs, known in Japan as bear hunters, with erect ears and large heads.

“Some people are terrified of them,” she said. “People cross the street when they see us coming.”

Van Ess agreed with the verdict, but is concerned that in its wake, dog owners will have a tougher time renting apartments.

“It’s already hard for me to find an apartment,” she said. Only one dog owner, Alison McMahon Johnson, 55, of Hancock Park, whose shepherd mix has lunged at people before, felt sorry for Knoller.

“There was definitely no intention to murder,” she said. “I mean, she lost her dogs; she has been in jail. That is punishment enough.... Those dogs were her babies.”

Johnson said caring for her dog Fidel is “a lot of work. It’s more work than a kid. With his size, if he makes a mistake, he could really hurt someone.”

“I’m worried all the time,” she said. “But I work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The owners said that training is essential to raising a dog.

Liesl and Mark Maggiore--who own two Rhodesian ridgeback dogs, a breed that hunted lions in southern Africa--conceded that the pets are capable of harming people, but the couple said they have trained the dogs to obey. Even the slightest growl or showing of teeth is cause for discipline, Liesl Maggiore said.

The verdict, she said, “sends a really huge message that you need to be responsible.... It’s people who give dogs a bad [reputation].”

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Times staff writer Daniel Yi contributed to this report.