Loading ...Pit Bull Legislation: Nonsensical
This past month, a city near me passed some breed-specific legislation (BSL). What kind of dog, you say?
Guess.
Pit bulls. Of course.
The City of Lakewood, Ohio, in late July, passed a bill that does a few things.
1. It requires all pit bulls and pit bull mixes to be registered and compliant with viscous dog laws
2. It bans new pit bulls from entering the city; i.e. a resident cannot go out and buy a pit bull
3. It requires all owners of pit bulls and pit bull mixes to have $100,000 liability insurance policies, 6-foot fences, and muzzles on dogs
Ridiculous? I think so, yes.
This is all thanks to City Councilman Brian Powers, dog-hater and power-tripper who maliciously took words out of context from Pit Bull Rescue Central to make his points clear and arguable. He cannot seem to site more than one source in any of his arguments. He alone convinced the City Council to pass the ban amid rigorous opposition from rescue groups, residents and non-residents.
So this brings me to my point. What’s the point of BSL? There is no point. I have said it before and I’ll say it again. There are no BAD dogs, only BAD OWNERS. If you ignore your dog, treat him like crap, keep him chained up outside and don’t show him love, kindness and affection, there’s a good chance he might turn mean. ANY DOG. I have met mean Golden Retrievers and Schnauzers in my lifetime.
The Humane Society of the United States has this to say regarding BSL:
“There are over 4.5 million dog bites each year. This is an estimate as there is no central reporting agency for dog bites, thus breed and other information is not captured. Out of the millions of bites, about 10-20 are fatal each year. While certainly tragic, it represents a very small number statistically and should not be considered as a basis for sweeping legislative action.”
The group’s official stance on BSL is that they are against it. Click here for their positioning statement. I agree with the following points in this statement:
1. While breed is one factor that contributes to a dog’s temperament, it alone cannot be used to predict whether a dog may pose a danger to his or her community.
2. It is imperative that the dog population in the community be understood. To simply pull numbers of attacks does not give an accurate representation of a breed necessarily.
3. Breed-specific legislation doesn’t work for several reasons: that there are inherent problems in trying to determine a dog’s breed, making enforcement of breed-specific legislation difficult at best; that fatal attacks represent a very small portion of bite-related injuries and should not be the major factor driving public policy; and that existing non-breed-specific legislation already exists and offers promise for the prevention of dog bites.
Perhaps Councilman Powers should have consulted some other resources in constructing his poorly made arguments. Because of him, owners are stuck with ridiculous compliance laws that cost A LOT of money. Who in the heck has money to build a six-foot fence and take out a $100,000 insurance policy?
For the dogs’ sakes, I hope that Lakewood residents who own pit bulls and other “viscous” dogs wise up and take their tax dollars and consumer spending money OUT of the City of Lakewood, and spend it elsewhere where there dogs are welcomed.
The book Crash! looks cute, I think I’ll have to get it!
As for bsl specifically I don’t agree with it. If they do it to one they’ll do it to others. As for pit bulls go, they scare me in general. A man I know was out walking and got bitten on the leg by one, a second grade girl at my school was savaged by another. Her sweet little face will never be the same. My niece’s husband wants to bring one into their home with a toddler and a baby, and I am not in favor of that.
On the other hand there used to be one across the street that would climb it’s fence and come over to visit if I was outside and it was very friendly and sweet.
I am really torn on the pit bull question, I love dogs and cats so much but wouldn’t want one of these around my family.
I have an award ofr you at my place!
I don’t agree with this law at all. A dog is trained to be the way they are. If you show anger and violence toward ANY dog they have a greater chance of being agressive. I have a Red Nose Pit and she is the most loving dog… she has 4 chihuahua’s as friends and is constantly showing gentleness toward them( She thinks she is a chihuahua too!) My husbands boss had a blue pit and he is so gentle too. A dog is raised to be the way they are.