A lot of stuff going on this week, so I'm going to jump in and hit the highlights. As always, if there are other major stories you want to include, please feel free to put in the comments. And, yes, I'm aware of the two fatality incidents this week -- will be covering off on those under a separate header.
Cities/States and Laws
Boston Mayor Merino is pledging that the city of Boston will try to keep it's law restricting pit bulls in spite of the new state law that prohibits laws targeting specific breeds. I have tried to get dog bite numbers from the city of Boston on multiple occassions now but the director of animal control has been mostly non-responsive to the requests -- and the data on effectiveness is certainly not easy to come by because no one seems to have it. Merino's pledge to keep the pit bull restrictions come after a person was bitten by a dog -- in spite of the restrictions that are in place (which have never shown to be an effective way to minimize dog bites).
The community of Etowah, TN passed the first reading of an ordinance that would target owners of pit bull type dogs -- including "any dog which has the appearnance or characteristics of being predominantly" one or more of the targeted breeds.
The topic of repealing the city's breed ban has come up in Paradise, Newfoundland.
Bellview, NE has changed its dangerous dog law to more specifically target dogs that show aggressive behavior. Bellview is a suburb of Omaha -- and while Omaha put in place a law targeting about 9 breeds of dogs several years ago (which has been failing miserably), Bellview remains firm in their stance on a dangerous dog ordinance targeting behavior, not looks.
Cridersville Village, OH appears to be moving away from breed-specific legislation.
Miscellaneous
This is easily my favorite story from the week -- but in Washington DC, a lost 'pit bull' lept inside of a police car, through a window, and climbed into the officer's lap licking his face. The dog, now named Star, is looking for a home at the Washington Humane Society.
The media in Jefferson County, AL is debunking calls for targeting specific breeds by providing accurate dog bite information for the county. In the county, of the nearly 600 dog bite incidents, 130 of the reports identify "mixed breed" as the culprit and 116 were "unknown" -- noting that breeds of dogs that would be targeted represent statistically very few of the bites in the county.
Blogs/Editorials
"No Kill" is finally becoming part of the vocabulary in Manatee County, FL.
The kill rate in Houston's Animal Shelter, BARC, have actually been increasing over the past couple of years -- now up to 58% kill rate. This includes a pretty poor 7% Return to owner rate.
What?!! A pit bulls?!! Absolutely -- an owner describes their decision to adopt a pit bull...
Pit bulls' PR Problem -- there's no arguing with ignorance -- A good editorial from out of Vancouver that highlights how ignorance is the major reason why people want to target pit bulls.
Why shelter killing has nothing to do with "Pet overpopulation" -- Christie Keith has some nice commentary on the subject.
Funny that the mayor of Boston is using this incident to push for keeping Boston pit bull regs. The incident would not have been prevented by adherence to Boston's pit bull regulations. Not unless there are provisions I'm not aware of, namely provisions for barring windows, muzzling dogs in their owner's home, or crating them in their owner's home.
Posted by: Laura | October 08, 2012 at 11:11 AM
The name of the Mayor of Boston is Menino, not "Merino."
He's being a pig-headed fool on this issue, but he has been a generally good and effective mayor.
Posted by: Lis Carey | October 08, 2012 at 03:08 PM