The Denver Westword -- an Alternative Newspaper in the Denver area -- has a great article today on Denver's 20 year old ban on pit bulls -- wondering if it's time for a recount on Denver's declaration of 'pit bulls' as public enemy #1.
The article tells some of the stories of the people who have been affected by the law. Kevin O'Connell had his Presa Canario that got out while a friend was watching his dogs and attacked a neighbor's Chihuahua. When animal control officers arrived, they confiscated not the dog that actually attacked the other dog, but the other dog that was in the yard minding its own business because they said it was a 'pit bull'. It also tells of his signing of a document that declares his dog a 'pit bull' in order to get his dog out of doggie prison -- which is a forced signature of guilt in order to get his now sickly looking dog -- which is a violation of the 5th amendment of the US Constitution.
It also tells the story of Heidi Tufto -- an army staff sergeant -- who was held at gunpoint while authorities confiscated her dog they thought was a 'pit bull' while she was walking her dog in the park in 2002. Tufto ended up being flown out of the state on a military transport to get out of the city.
The article also talks about the costs associated with Denver enforcing the ban. Since 1992, Denver has impounded 5,286 pit bulls. In 2005 and 2006 alone (right after Denver won its lawsuit against the state of Colorado in order to keep its ban), 1900 pit bulls were confiscated -- of those, 1,453 of them were killed. In total, 3,500 'pit bulls' have been killed by the city - -at an estimated cost of roughly $256 per dog from pickup to killed. In total, about $900,000 has been spent by the city killing pit bulls -- mostly in the past 3 years. The city has indured three lawsuits (one is still ongoing) and even levied its own lawsuit against the state (which doubles the taxpayer expense since they're paying for both ends of the suit) in order to keep the law. The city pays six full time evaluators just to determine breed identification.
In total, the city has spent millions of taxpayer dollars enforcing the ban, and killing dogs -- all at a time when the city is facing a $160 million budget shortfall -- with no measure of success.
According to the report:
Denver has never done an audit of the pit bull ban, never conducted a study of how effective it has been, never established a commission to determine whether one of Denver's most controversial policies is actually accomplished what it was created to do. But evidence from other sources suggests that after two decades of classifying pit bulls as public enemy number one, it could be time for Denver to redo its math.
While proponents of the city's ban point to the fact that since the ban was put in place no one in Denver has been killed by a "pit bull", that is a really narrow focus. Someone has been killed by a dog in Denver since the ban was put in place -- just by a different breed of dog -- which is actually pretty amazing given how rare such attacks are.
Meanwhile, a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment notes that a person bitten by a dog in Denver is much more likely to go to the hospital than a person bitten in many neighborhing counties that don't ban pit bulls -- and a separate study done by the Coalition on Living Safely with Dogs notes that the bite rate in Denver is much higher than it is in neighboring communities.
So how is it that the city of Denver has been allowed to spend millions in taxpayer funds to enforce and defend a controversial ordinance with no study on its own part to determine the effectiveness of such a law? It almost seems criminal.
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What makes it worse is that this all started after an attack by a 'pit bull' on Wilbur Billingsly -- a 58 year old evangelical pastor. Billingsly was severely mauled. It turns out that in spite of the owner's assertion that the dog had never been a problem before, this wasn't the dog's first run in with trouble. In fact, the dog had bitten three people in three consecutive years - -including one incident in which a child was bitten so badly that a child spent 3 weeks in the hospital. Animal control let the dog that attacked Billingsly stay with its owner - -who continued to leave the dog chained in the back yard. Just three days before the attack, the dog had broken free from his chain and nearly attacked an 11 year old girl. Had animal control done anything at all to remove this dog from the situation -- and prevented the dog's clearly irresponsible owner from continuing to own, and mistreat the animal -- Billingsly may likely have never been attacked -- creating what then council president Cathy Reynolds still recalls as "the hysteria of the moment. It was emotional, there was no way you could stop it."
Had animal control simply done their jobs -- Wilbur Billingsly would likely have never been mauled -- and a ban that has cost the taxpayers of Denver millions of dollars with no measurable success would have never taken place.
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The after affect has been equally tragic. Dogs ripped from people's homes. People forced to move. Armed services officers held at gunpoint. Thousands of dogs killed for no reason at all.
The article has an accompanying pictoral of Denver's "Pit Bull Row". It's extremely powerful.
Please check out both articles.
For Two decades, pit bulls have been public enemy #1 in Denver. But maybe it's time for a recount.
And while you're at it, check out denverkillsdogs.com.
And alsoFor the Pit Bulls blog on the same subject.
I am not sure if the pet owners in the USA really understand the ramifications of this very horrific crap piece of legislation.
Since Denver is a major metropolitan city, the influence their ban carries is enormous.
The precedent they set with the method of enforcement, right down to the Unconstitutional forced signed confession is mimicked all over this country.
Posted by: KC KS Kills Dogs | September 24, 2009 at 04:14 PM