Have you seen the video that went viral this week, yet? Hero cat, saves little boy from vicious dog. We all usually associate Fido with man’s best friend and protector, but sadly, sometimes Fido’s intentions aren’t what we expected. Good thing other furry friends are willing to step up to the challenge.
Our neighbors to the south in Orange County were at one point considering an initiative to create an online “Dangerous Dog Registry.” After some further research, we quickly discovered Orange County is hardly the first jurisdiction to mull creating such a registry. In fact, a number of counties and cities across the country, including Virginia, Minneapolis, and Florida, have taken the initiative to provide people information on dangerous dogs near them.
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Here at Spokeo, we are constantly evaluating and integrating new data into our products to make them more valuable for our customers. As a part of this process, we’re also looking outside the bounds of “people search” to discover what others are doing to empower families and individuals through information.
Unfortunately, there are a number of challenges to Dangerous Dog Registries having a material impact in making people’s lives safer.
1) Number of Jurisdictions — With 3,144 county-equivalent and approximately 36,000 city/town governments in the US, there are a huge number of independently-acting bodies which would have to act to achieve full coverage. Without a more comprehensive (state- or federal-level) initiative, the availability Dangerous Dog registries will continue to be sparse.
2) Boundaries — Government (and computers) deal very well with strict boundaries. However, those people who are near the boundary between one or more jurisdictions would have to monitor multiple registries.
3) Awareness — As registries are created at the local level, there is not widespread media or consumer attention drawn to the topic. A state- or federal- level initiative would generate the media attention required to “get the word out” on dangerous dogs. Similarly, a large-scale awareness program that is generally beyond the means of local government would
We here at Spokeo are not trying to make a national Dangerous Dog Registry — yet. One day we may crossover to “Canine Search,” but for now we’re keenly focused on tackling searching for people. We gather data from many different sources and bring them all together to answer the questions you have about those around you. Spokeo’s data is sourced from all fifty states — thousands of counties and tens of thousands of cities — and presented as one tool to uncover the information you need.
Some Dog Registries:
Virginia Dangerous Dog Registry