City officials said Monday they're considering several new regulations aimed at identifying all of the city's violent dogs and exactly where they live in Escondido, similar to how Megan's Law identifies sex offenders.

The new ordinances and policies would give Escondido by far the strictest dog regulations in the county, according to officials from both the Escondido Humane Society and the county Department of Animal Control.

City Council members and animal control officials said the proposals were worth considering, but they also expressed skepticism. City Council members said they were leery of continually using legislation to solve the city's problems, and animal control officials said the proposals would be labor-intensive and costly.

The rules, which would require City Council approval, were proposed by a local resident whose dog was attacked by two pit bulls this winter near Mountain View Park.

The local resident, Lisa Kusick, wants the humane society to start keeping track of all dog-on-dog attacks in Escondido so that the city's aggressive and dangerous dogs can be identified and advertised to the public.

"It would be a sort of Megan's Law for violent dogs," said Kusick, referring to state legislation that requires law enforcement agencies to publish the addresses of convicted sex offenders. "We need to get tougher ordinances before a small child gets badly injured or killed."

Sally Costello, executive director of the Escondido Humane Society, said her agency is open-minded about Kusick's proposals. But she also said they would significantly increase the humane society's workload and require a large increase in the nonprofit agency's annual $2 million budget.

The Humane Society handles animal control for Escondido, San Marcos and Poway.

Kusick's proposal would require all city agencies and animal facilities to submit an incident report when they became aware of attacks or aggression involving dogs. The facilities affected would include veterinary offices, animal urgent care clinics, groomers and kennels.

Dogs deemed responsible for multiple incidents would be declared "aggressive" by the city, and their addresses and pictures would be published on a city or humane society Web site.

Costello said the humane society is already required to keep track of dog-on-human attacks, which get reported to the state each year. Extending that policy to dog-on-dog attacks would require a lot of extra work, she said.

Costello said requiring veterinarians and groomers to report bites would "bring in a whole new realm of incidents not being reported now."

But she questioned whether such a policy might fail to distinguish between violent bites and bites that occur when dogs get carried away playing with their master or another dog.

Many dog bites are accidents, she said, not evidence of a violent or overly aggressive dog.

Daniel DeSousa, a lieutenant with county animal control, said such a policy might put "an undue burden" on groomers and vets.

"The more info we can get about bites the better, but I don't know if you'd get a lot of cooperation," DeSousa said.

County officials now declare dogs dangerous if they have been involved in two biting incidents within a four-year period or one incident involving a significant injury during that amount of time, said DeSousa. People can get a list of dangerous dogs by filing public records requests, but no public agencies post photos or addresses of dangerous dogs, he said.

Kusick's proposals were included in a letter she sent to city officials early this month.

"We can be known as the city that has the strongest ordinances in San Diego County to protect family pets, and the city that will not condone the unnecessary violence that aggressive dog owners relish," Kusick said in the letter.

Councilman Ed Gallo said Kusick's letter convinced him that the city needs to carefully examine its regulations and consider making them tougher.

"I think people have to feel safe when they are walking on our streets," said Gallo. "If you talk to any responsible pet owner, I'm sure they would agree that tough rules are appropriate."

Gallo said he plans to discuss Kusick's proposals with City Attorney Jeff Epp and the rest of the council. Epp did not return phone calls Monday.

Councilmen Dick Daniels and Sam Abed agreed that the proposals should be considered, but they also said they were reluctant to continually approve new legislation.

"The government has to be careful in rushing to legislate," said Abed.

Daniels said it was essential that any new regulations go after only people with aggressive dogs, not create headaches for responsible dog owners.

Gallo said that no matter what new regulations the city might adopt, the key to controlling aggressive dogs would remain the honor system.

"We have to rely on people to be responsible enough to police themselves," said Gallo.

Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 740-5468 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.