RALEIGH - For Malinda Delbridge, the wound is healing, but the memory stays fresh. She can still see the pit bull charging into her yard and grabbing her poodle in its jaws. When she went to her dog's rescue, the pit bull turned on her, biting her leg hard enough to draw blood.

The purple gash on her shin still hurts one month after the attack. But the fear of another bite hurts more.

On average, dogs bite people every day in Raleigh. Last year, animal bites drew police 367 times -- up 56 percent from 2000.

By state law, every dog that bites gets quarantined for 10 days to check for rabies. In Raleigh, owners get fined $50 when they can't show proof of vaccination.

But that's often all that happens in Raleigh -- some cities have tougher enforcement -- and it doesn't satisfy victims such as Delbridge.

The pit bull, named Remy, barks at her from the same pen it escaped from last month. Neighbors tell her they've seen Remy get out of that pen since he attacked her.

"I guess I'll never get over that fear," she said. "I'm scared it's going to happen again."

Meanwhile, she must pay a $300 medical bill.

The dog's owner paid a $50 fine for not having proof of a rabies vaccination and $150 to spring the dog from quarantine.

How law favors dogs

WakeMed Raleigh Campus treated 136 dog bites last year, up from 99 in 2005.

There could be more, a spokesman said. If a doctor does not specifically label an injury as a dog bite, it doesn't get reported that way.

It is safe to guess, too, that many go unreported. Delbridge didn't seek medical attention for a few days, until a friend cautioned her about rabies.

But the landscape of dog-bite law adds most to Delbridge's worry.

North Carolina's rules favor the dog, not the victim, said Kenneth M. Phillips, a California defense lawyer who devotes his entire practice to bites.

To successfully sue for damages over a nonfatal bite here, he explains, you must prove either that the dog was running alone, off its property at night, or that it was already dangerous.

Dangerous, by the state's definition, means at least one of three things:

* A bite broke a victim's bones.

* A bite left a disfiguring wound.

* The dog terrorized someone off its property.

If a dog does get classified as dangerous, tough new rules kick in. It must be kept inside unless it is confined to an enclosed area that has both a roof and a floor. That way, the dog can't jump a fence or dig its way out. If a dangerous dog leaves the property, it must be muzzled.

Raleigh's animal control officers rarely classify dogs as dangerous -- maybe two or three times a year, said Tracy Alford, a supervisor.

Raleigh maintains an appeals board just to hear dangerous dog cases. But when it met in September to consider the fate of three dogs, it was the board's first meeting in five years.

Most bites just don't rise to the level of a serious wound, Alford said.

"People get bit every day," he said. "Sorry to say that. It's not to say we don't look at every one. It has to meet a certain criteria."

Larry Murray, president of the letter carriers union in Raleigh, praised the Capital City's enforcement. Biters always get quarantined, he said, and he couldn't recall any repeat offenders.

But other North Carolina cities set the danger bar at a more reachable level.

In Fayetteville, it is rare that a dog doesn't get declared dangerous after a bite, said Sue Nicholson, the animal control director in Cumberland County.

Last year, her department declared 29 dogs dangerous after human bites and 15 more as aggressive after dog-on-dog violence.

"We've got a lot of people into what is called 'the bully breeds,' " said Charles Steinman, operations supervisor there. "I'm not going to stereotype, but a pit bull is a very territorial dog."

Charlotte declared 10 dogs dangerous in the last fiscal year. The city considered a pit-bull ban recently after a man was killed by four of his father's dogs. But the City Council tightened dangerous dog rules instead, allowing officers to seize animals.

Some consistency would be nice, said Mark Kumpf, president of the National Animal Control Association, which promotes responsible pet ownership.

Laws out of date?

Dog laws are written to guard against taking an owner's property for frivolous reasons, Kumpf said, and they often date to the 1800s.

Much of North Carolina's dog statute predates the 20th century, and parts of it deal with how to treat dogs that kill sheep or "run at large during the erotic stage of copulation."

That doesn't mean that dog-bite victims never win in North Carolina. Attorney Brent Adams said he often wins lawsuits for clients in Raleigh and Fayetteville. The state has a reputation for letting dogs slide unless the owner knows they are dangerous.

Phillips labels North Carolina as a "one free bite" state on his Internet site, www.dogbitelaw.com, because the owner cannot be held responsible unless he knows his dog's potential for violence.

Still, Adams said, owning breeds such as pit bulls or Rottweilers tends to qualify as adequate notice.

Every attack and every dog is different, Kumpf said, but the lack of a standard allows for unpredictable enforcement.

Both Raleigh and Wake County animal control officers say dangerous dog rulings are rare.

But although "rare" in Raleigh means two or three times a year, it means once or twice a month in Wake County.

Kumpf said he once tried to get a dog in Virginia euthanized after it attacked six or seven children, but a judge allowed it to be relocated to a remote junkyard in New Mexico.

Eight months later, he said, the dog was back in Norfolk.

Still fearful

Remy the pit bull stays inside a pen that Delbridge can see from her side window on Boyer Street.

To get out, the dog would need to jump or dig under two sets of chain-link fences, but Delbridge takes no comfort. The pit bull has gotten out before.

Remy escaped to bite Delbridge, owner Sandy Dee Terry said, by slipping through its gate when she opened it.

But Terry rolled her eyes at the mention of the December attack and rejected neighbors' reports that it continues to escape.

"That dog don't be out," Terry said. "It don't be out because of how much we paid to get it back."

Still, Delbridge walks cautiously through her yard, eyes on the pit bull's pen.

(Staff researcher Denise Jones contributed to this report.)

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