Last week, a South Salt Lake City man was bitten by two dogs outside of a gas station.
The dogs, roaming off-leash, approached the man. There is no word that the dog approached the man aggressively, but regardless, the man became scared and when the dogs got close to him, he began kicking one of the dogs. The dogs retaliated and "attacked" the man.
Of course, the headlines were all about the "pit bull" attack -- not about the reality that the man attacked the dogs first.
When police came to get the dogs, police officials said the dogs were quite friendly and showed no signs of aggression...apparently only showing aggression when they are kicked. Many dogs would react the same way.
The story goes on to talk about how attacks like this often lead to talk of breed bans -- even though the news source didn't find one person in favor of such a ban --- although th Humane Society of Utah spoke out against such a ban.
The news station also noted that the community of South Jordan, UT passed a ban on pit bulls (which happened in 1997). The article even shows South Jordan's dog bites from 2000-2007. During that time, the total number of dog bites went from 42 to 112. Less than 5% are coming from 'pit bulls'. It's interesting to note the huge increase in dog bites from 2000 to 2007 -- a 167% increase in bites over the 7 year timeframe. It's worth noting that South Jordan is a rapidly growing city in Utah -- and the population grew from 29,437 to 48,046 during this timeframe. But while the city has grown in population by 63%, the number of dog bites has increased at more than double the rate of the population.
The breed ban there isn't improving public safety in South Jordan. Bites continue to go up at an alarming rate. And quite likely this is in part due actually TO the breed ban -- which as noted in Yakima earlier today, eats up animal control resources dealing with 'pit bulls' (both real and not real) and not with aggressive dogs -- regardless of breed. Additionally, the media fear-mongering leads to people having an irratoinal fear of pit bull type dogs -- which would lead a man outside of a gas station to kick two friendly dogs because of his unfounded fears -- and actually CAUSE him to get attacked.
And so the vicious cycle goes. A 'pit bull' bites someone. The media uses the situation to fear monger and create talk of breed bans even when such talk really doesn't exist. The media even uses the "other cities are doing it" approach -- ignoring the fact that it isn't improving public safety. And then another city passes a ban, which decreases public safety, and increases ignorance about what it really takes to increase public safety, which leads to more dog bites, and the cycle continues.
It's time to break the cycle. It's time to insist that cities look at ordinances that actually WORK -- not just laws that other cities are passing. It only makes sense...and we need to quit letting the media fear-monger us into bad legislation and further ignorance among people in our communities.
Right on! Just because a lot of people believe something, it doesn't make it true.
Just because a lot of jerkwater burgs pass 'pit bull' (ha ha) bans, it doesn't mean they are reaonable, effective or easy to enforce.
Time to stop the lemming march to failure. Time to stand up for what's right, fair and most of all, effective. time for legislators to start thinking and stop knee-jerking their way into a corner.
Posted by: Selma | August 25, 2009 at 06:42 PM