Saturday begins the 2007 Edition of the Canine Legislation Conference. We have a great set of speakers on tap, and I, for one, am really excited.
In additionl to the original slate of speakers, we have two additional sessions. The first is a forum on the importance of, and how to get, dog parks in your city. The panel will be speaker Bill Bruce from Calgary (Calgary has over 140 off-leash dog parks, and one of the lowest dog bite rates in North America) and Selma Mulvey who was instrumental in a 6-year project to get a dog park in Hamilton, Ontario. We've also added a session on tethering laws and ordinances with panelists Tammy Grimes, from the group Dogs Deserve Better, Jim Crosby, a Canine Aggression expert and Midge Grinstead who is the head of animal control in Lawrence which has a very successful tethering limits law.
For you readers out there that have been involved in working on the building of more dog parks in Kansas City -- we've put these sessions in for you.
We are also opening our Saturday afternoon group of speakers to city councilmen, aldermen, and other city officials who wish to pay $50 to come hear some of our keynote speakers. The Saturday afternoon group is slated to include:
Jim Crosby - expert in Canine Aggression
Tio Hardiman - with Cease Fire -- a group in Chicago that is working with inner city youths to curb violence in the inner city of Chicago -- including dog fighting
Midge Grindstead - with Lawrence Animal Control and instrumental in their anti-tethering law that is working very well in Lawrence
Bill Bruce -- head of animal control in Calgary, where their policies, centered around promoting responsible dog ownership, have cut dog attack incidences by 75% over the past 15 years while the population of Calgary has doubled.
So if you're a member of city government, or aspire to be, you may want to come on down to the afternoon session of the CLC. Just email me at politics@kcdogadvocates.org and I'll get you hooked up to attend.
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