Proponent testimony for Ohio's HB 14 will be heard a 9 am on Wednesday, February 9th, in Room 114 of the State House.
HB 14 is a bill sponsored by Barbara Sears that would eliminate any reference to specific breeds from Ohio's dangerous dog statutes. Ohio is the only state to have any form of breed-specific language (14 states actually have laws that forbid breed-specific laws).
A similar bill passed the House of Representatives last fall, but stalled out in the Senate at the end of 2010. The bill has been assigned to the Criminal Justice Committee and needs a strong showing of canine advocates to come out in support of the bill on Wednesday. If you cannot make the meeting Wednesday, please contact your state representative and tell them you support the bill as written.
If you need more info -- please contact the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates for details...they're a great organization that is on top of this charge to change this wrong-headed state law.
Thank you so much for keeping up with this. I just called my rep's office and spoke to a nice assistant who also agrees with HB 14 and said she'd tell him constituents were calling in support. This is just one of the many reasons I value the work that you - thank you!
Posted by: KateH | February 08, 2011 at 04:05 PM
Uh, that should have been "value the work that you do - thank you, Brett!"
Posted by: KateH | February 08, 2011 at 04:06 PM
Thanks Kate for calling (and for the compliments).
Posted by: Brent | February 08, 2011 at 05:28 PM
My brain was spinning and slipping in my hurry to call before 5 (I'm an hour ahead of you) and I misspelled your name, too! I'm so sorry!
Posted by: KateH | February 10, 2011 at 07:47 AM
Brent you had a post some time ago which dealt with animal controls breed opinions being used as expert testimony and a court ruled that their testimony could not be expert as there was no way to measure their accuracy. Do you happen to remember when that was posted?
Posted by: Lisa in OH | February 10, 2011 at 08:32 AM
Here you go Lisa:
http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2011/01/court-rules-animal-control-breed-id-to-be-subjective-in-violation-of-due-process.html
Posted by: Brent | February 10, 2011 at 08:49 AM