Need help Possible BSL going in in next town

sharky · Aug 13, 2007

Okay I need the experts ... a neighboringing town is thinking about banning or restricting 10 breeds of dog ... I need to know what to try to do to stop it ////

naturally there is only one truely dangerous ( should be a guard dog only) on the list ...

In the last two weeks police in that town have killed a rottweiler and a pit bull /// SAYING the rottie charged him

... I am guessing they have the same training as the cops in the city that thought a 2liter of pop was a weapon and killed a mentally challaged man in a convience store isle ....

cococat · Aug 13, 2007

You might want to join this list:http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/fightBSL/

This website has a wealth of information:
http://www.stopbsl.com/links.htm

What area? There are reps for each area that usually help fight. At the very least write your legislators in that area professional letters, snail mail, e-mail, and fax: http://www.rott-n-chatter.com/rottwe...leletters.html

Write your paper:
http://www.dogwatch.net/letter_writing.html
http://www.dogwatch.net/strategy.html

What breeds? I have a guess what they are

Contact your local breed clubs around you, some can be found here: http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cfm

Here is the AKC's page about it: http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=2816

Thank you for wanting to make a difference, it does help.

sharky · Aug 13, 2007

breeds

presa canarios( can or con corso to many of us and the only one I would say is not a house pet)
GSD
pit bull
staffie
rottie
chow
doberman
huskie
wolf hybrid( very common here and well the ones I have meet are sweet if kept in singles or pairs )

thank you I will be reading up

calico2222 · Aug 13, 2007

I can't believe they are banning these breeds! Restricting them, I can see, especially if they have a problem with the owners letting them run free. Any big dog (well, any dog period) should be on a leash when outside an enclosed place if living in town.

Huskies and Rotties (from my experience) are so loving! Yes, the Rottie may have been charging...but was he attacking or going to smother him in kisses? I don't agree that the breeds themselves are dangerous. Any owner can train a dog to be an attack dog (or kill him in the process). I will admit, I'm cautious around pit bulls, but the few that I have met as family pets are wonderful.

I think some people are afraid of big dogs because they don't understand them. I hope you can find out exactly what they are trying to ban/restrict and do something about it.

sharky · Aug 13, 2007

They are thinking of banning cause the cops evindentally arent trained in basic animal control... Right now that town has NO ANIMAL control and doesnt seem to be smart enough to start there /// The local humane society in the county is AGAINST this idea ... Yes they have had a few toubled dogs but no one is talking about the small dogs that are MORE LIKELY to ATTACK ...

the pit bull was with another pit and treed a guy ... DUMB GUY instead of standing his ground backed up into the tree , these dogs were not known to have been attack prone....

All the inscidents can be traced back to HUMAN S not knowing the basics... My answer is to train the cops ... That force has a K9 unit what are they all going to have to move out of town... as 75% are GSD and Rotties

They are looking at options/// only one of which involved training///

One stated muzzleing dogs in public ... yeah anyone with dog experience will go umm NO

catloverin_ks · Aug 13, 2007

I hate BSL!!!

BSL is a bunch of BS!!!

They dont think about all the dogs such as poodles,labs,cockers....that bite and turn on people...

Ugghh, dont even get me started!! I hate this........

angelkitty · Aug 14, 2007

Originally Posted by sharky

breeds

presa canarios( can or con corso to many of us and the only one I would say is not a house pet)
GSD
pit bull
staffie
rottie
chow
doberman
huskie
wolf hybrid( very common here and well the ones I have meet are sweet if kept in singles or pairs )

thank you I will be reading up

That is bullcrud!!!! I have 2 rotties, and they are like the biggest weenies on earth!! They wouldn't hurt a fly,, well maybe a fly (they chase flies),, but nothing else....

This BSL is nothing but pure discrimination!!!!! It's absolute

!!!!

cessena · Aug 14, 2007

Huskies!?!?!?!??!?! Are they Serious?

It looks like they just picked all the scary looking dogs out of a dog book and figured they were dangerous.

I am fairly certain that if anyone tries to rob my house my husky will attempt to protect us by licking him to death.

angelkitty · Aug 14, 2007

Originally Posted by Cessena

Huskies!?!?!?!??!?! Are they Serious?

It looks like they just picked all the scary looking dogs out of a dog book and figured they were dangerous.

I am fairly certain that if anyone tries to rob my house my husky will attempt to protect us by licking him to death.

Amen to that.. I think my rottis would lick someone to death too..

momofmany · Aug 14, 2007

You might want to look up Dog Advocacy groups in your area also. Best Friends network might also have some ideas on where to start.

cococat · Aug 14, 2007

Originally Posted by Cessena

It looks like they just picked all the scary looking dogs out of a dog book and figured they were dangerous.

.

Yeah, it really does. Like they took all the urban legends they knew, all the sterotypes they knew, and looked through a book and pointed a finger to write that dog breed down on their list.

They couldn't have actually gone to dog experts, trainers, dog club members, dog show people, shelters, and the like. The people that actually know dogs and work with them on a daily basis now could they?

You know no one trying to pass this stupid law has ever lived with these dog breeds, otherwise they wouldn't want to ban them. I grew up with one of those on the list, still own them today, great kid dogs, excellent family dogs. Sometimes society sucks so much. Already HOA's restrict breeds, there is a town in Colo (maybe 2) that restrict an entire breed. Ugh. I feel like the fight this all the time, but it is a fight worth fighting to me.
My personal rights to own this breed of dog that has brought me nothing but joy every year of life and also to many around me (therapy dogs) is very important to me.

miagi's_mommy · Aug 14, 2007

bless your heart for speaking up for these poor dogs. I hate BSL!

I hope they don't pass the BSL.

The good dog owners and their dogs will suffer.

I have a rottie mix and she's the best dog I have ever had. thank goodness they aren't trying to pass BSL here and I hope they never do, there's so many of those breeds listed on the ones they think they should ban here.

good luck!

sharky · Aug 30, 2007

Well tonight there was a meeting sponsered by the local dog fanciers club... the city attorney , city counsel and animal control was to wooossy to evan show up ... but about 100 people did ( not bad since the city in ?? has about 50000)

2dogmom · Aug 31, 2007

I found a useful article from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The AVMA Task Force on Canine Aggression and Human-Canine Interactions wrote in "A community approach to dog bite prevention" six years ago that "breed-specific legislation is an inappropriate and ineffective approach to protecting public safety."
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/feb06/060201o.asp

The original article that this is based on is available on the internet to the general public. It is long, but the relevant text is as follows:

Concerns about “dangerous” dogs have caused many local governments to consider supplementing existing animal control laws with ordinances directed toward control of specific breeds or types of dogs. Members of the Task Force believe such ordinances are inappropriate and ineffective.
Statistics on fatalities and injuries caused by dogs cannot be responsibly used to document the “dangerousness” of a particular breed, relative to other breeds,for several reasons. First, a dog’s tendency to bite depends on at least 5 interacting factors: heredity, early experience, later socialization and training, health (medical and behavioral), and victim behavior. Second, there is no reliable way to identify the number of dogs of a particular breed in the canine population at any given time (eg, 10 attacks by Doberman Pinschers relative to a total population of 10 dogs implies a different risk than 10 attacks by Labrador Retrievers relative to a population of 1,000 dogs). Third, statistics may be skewed, because often they do not consider multiple incidents caused by a single animal. Fourth, breed is often identified by individuals who are not familiar with breed characteristics and who commonly identify dogs of mixed ancestry as if they were purebreds. Fifth, the popularity of breeds changes over time, making comparison of breed-specific bite rates unreliable. Breed-specific ordinances imply that there is an objective method of determining the breed of a particular dog, when in fact, there is not at this time. Owners of mixed-breed dogs or dogs that have not been registered with a national kennel club have no way of knowing whether their dog is one of the types identified and whether they are required to comply with a breed-specific ordinance. In addition, law enforcement personnel typically have no scientific means for determining a dog’s breed that can withstand the rigors of legal challenge, nor do they have a foolproof method for deciding whether owners are in compliance or in violation of laws. Such laws assume that all dogs of a certain breed are likely to bite, instead of acknowledging that most dogs are not a problem. These laws often fail to take normal dog behavior into account and may not assign appropriate responsibilities to owners.

http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/pdf...32?cookieSet=1

Another source of information is the "Animal Legal & Historical Center" of the Michigan College of Law in the US. They do not represent any interest groups and as such can be considered neutral.
Some of their remarks:

Dog control problems are people problems, and are not limited to a breed or mix.
Banning a breed or declaring it inherently vicious punishes those responsible dog owners who are the type of citizens that communities need to keep, not drive away.

Communities that have instituted such bans often find that the irresponsible owners and the criminals who use dogs for illegal purposes simply switch to another breed.

Banning a breed or particular mix of breeds punishes those dogs that are reliable community citizens, therapy dogs, assistance dogs for handicapped owners, search and rescue dogs, drug-sniffing dogs, police dogs, etc., and drives them out of the community.

Breeds and mixes are often difficult to identify.

The "pit bull" is a type of dog bred for fighting, not a specific breed.

Passage of laws that are only enforced on complaint cause two problems: they create disrespect for the law if the authorities require compliance only upon complaint, and they provide ammunition for neighborhood feuds.18

...
Opponents also claim that identifying one breed over another as more "dangerous" is meaningless, because from year to year the breed of dog responsible for the most serious bites and attacks often changes, frequently in proportion to how popular the breed is overall.22 Accurate information on dog bites and the proportion of bites to breeds is difficult to determine at best, because accurate statistics would require "comprehensive reports of all bites, reliable breed identification, and detailed information about the demographics of the entire dog population of the area in question. Such numbers are often unreliable since compliance with local dog licensing or registration requirements is usually below 20% in most U.S. communities.23 While a few dog bite statistical studies have been attempted, bite-rate analysis cannot be accurate without a comprehensive census of dog population in the United States.

They also provide an example of a "dangerous dog law" that I could live with:

For example, Michigan's state statutes define a "dangerous animal" as:
[A] dog or other animal that bites or attacks a person, or a dog that bites or attacks and causes serious injury or death to another dog while the other dog is on the property or under the control of its owner. However, a dangerous animal does not include any of the following: (i) An animal that bites or attacks a person who is knowingly trespassing on the property of the animal's owner. (ii) An animal that bites or attacks a person who provokes or torments the animal. (iii) An animal that is responding in a manner that an ordinary and reasonable person would conclude was designed to protect a person if that person is engaged in a lawful activity or is the subject of an assault. (iv) Livestock33.

source: http://www.animallaw.info/articles/aruslweiss2001.htm

Good luck!

Need help Possible BSL going in in next town

sharky

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cococat

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sharky

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calico2222

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sharky

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catloverin_ks

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angelkitty

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cessena

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angelkitty

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momofmany

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cococat

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miagi's_mommy

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sharky

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2dogmom

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