Thanks for the reponses last week. I just wanted to be sure there was value in this weekly post and since there is, I plan to continue it for the foreseeable future. Let's get to the news.
Cities and Laws
From Stop BSL: The mayor of the city of Laurel, MD is asking Prince George's County, MD to lift their ban on pit bulls that has been in place since 1997. It doesn't sound like the ban is having any positive impacts but a whole lot of negative ones. This is the third time in the past decade that the county has looked at a repeal.
BSL watch for Elkhart, IN who is at least talking about the possibility. There even is a "Pit Bulls are like a loaded gun" comment in there, even though guns kill tens of thousands of people ever year in the US and pit bulls get 6-10 in a typical year. People in this country aren't really all that good at math though and like drama much better.
Hutchinson, KS may now be looking at breed specific legislation following an incident where a woman was bitten by a pit bull there.
Sioux City, IA residents are still pushing for changes to the city's dangerous dog law. Since the new law was put in place (which included a pit bull ban), three dogs in the city have been declared dangerous including a pit bull, a Great Dane, and city councilman Aaron Rochester's Labrador. Sioux City's struggles with BSL have been pretty well documented and it looks like they're going to look at other options besides their current ban maybe this fall.
The city of Olathe, KS is now not sure they want to close down their shelter because of budget cuts and because of expansions to the fire station next door that requires the space occupied by the shelter. They're doing a pretty thorough job of looking into this. While their shelter is one of the better city run shelters in the area while their alternative, contracting with Animal Haven is also a sound choice.
Cities, Dog bites, and media reporting
The Sheriff in White County, TN is no longer recommending that the county look at a county-wide breed ban. There was talk of this last week following an attack where a woman was attacked by what the media reported as two 'pit bulls'. However, it turns out one of the dogs was actually a Boxer (and how anyone missed that breed ID I have no idea, it couldn't look more like a Boxer -- and frankly, the 'pit bull' doesn't look very 'pit bull' either) and the sheriff is realizing that something breed neutral is more the way to go. The deputy on the case said he originally identified the animals as 'pit bulls' based on the victim's and witnesses testimony (which we know is entirely innaccurate). It's just amazing how some bad media reporting can spark a debate that shouldn't have been taking place at all.
Dog bites and attacks
There were a LOT of stories this week about young toddlers getting bitten by dogs. These types of bites are fairly common and breed is irrelevant. What would be great is that instead of talking about breeds when it comes to dog bites, we would spend that time and energy talking to parents about great ways to introduce toddlers into their family with an existing dog. If we would do that, so many of these bites would be eliminated. Of course several of these involve 'pit bulls', because the media loves a good pit bull story, but if you look at the ones involving other breeds you'll note there is really no difference in these bites except for the way the media covers them. Parents, if you have young toddlers and dogs, it is your responsibility to socialize the two together and closely supervise all interactions.
In New Mexico, an 11 month old toddler was bitten while playing with the family's 'pit bull' without close adult supervision. The grandmother on the scene noted that she "heard a nip" -- so obviously wasn't watching the child/dog interaction.
A 17 month old Redondo Beach, CA boy was bitten after he was bitten by the family dog. The boy was playing with the dog in the living room when he apparently pulled the dog's tale and caused the dog to lash back at the boy. Toddlers often don't have any understanding of their actions causing harm to dogs -- and dogs that are harmed will often lash back as biting is their only form of defense. The dog is being called a 'pit bull' by the media -- but that dog looks nothing like any of the "pit bull" breeds.
A 9 month old Tuscon toddler was attacked by the family's "shepherd mix" -- both the toddler and the dog were near the child's mom while she was out planting a small garden.
A 16 month old child in Waco was bitten by the family's dog. The child's mother left the room for "just a moment" and when she came back the child was crying and bleeding after being bitten by the dog.
A 15 month old Eden, NC child was bitten by a mixed breed dog requiring stitches. Apparently the dog was on a chain but was able to reach far enough to bite the child who received injuries on his houlder, jaw and nose.
All of these bites were EXTREMELY preventable given a proper amount of parent education. But we MUST stop talking about "breeds" and start talking about circumstances if there is every going to be any hope of curbing these types of preventable bites.
In other stories:
A 10 year old Bloomington, IN boy was bitten in the face pretty severely by a mixed breed dog causing part of his nose and lip to be town off. There have been previous reports of an animal biting children at the same address....none of which appeared to have been covered by the local media.
A 13 year old Oshawa (Ontario) boy was taken to the hospital to receive stitches after being bitten by an American Bull Dog. Ontario has a ban on 'pit bulls' -- but because they focused on breeds and not irresponsible and neglectful dog owners, attacks like this still happen.
Two Russian Wolfhounds that attacked a man and his dog earlier this month were returned to their owner in East Alton (IL?) . The owner plans to return the dogs to the breeder where he got them.
A family is searching for a cat that attacked their 7 year old son.
An 8 year old boy apparently provoked the family's "bull mastiff" (I really question this breed ID as the dog is supposedly 3 years old and weighs only 80 lbs) into attacking him...but the dog is getting kicked out of the house anyway.
An Akita in Kingston, MA is being ordered to be neutered, restrained when outside and receive professional training after it bit a 9 year old boy in the face and stomach in april.
Officials in Newmarket, DE seized a mixed breed dog (a very cool looking dog, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it) that bit four people. Officials are calling it a Rottweiler mix, which I guess it could be, but I'm not so sure.
Abuse Cases
A pit bull in Sheridan, ORdied because it was chained up in the back yard to its dog house and apparently unable to get to its food or water in 103 degree weather last week. The dog died not 30 feet away from the family's above ground pool where they were cooling off from the heat.
A Dearborn, MI man suffered from a tragic case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that ended up leading him to collect Chihuahuas -- and last week, 110 live dogs and 150 dead dogs that were kept in freezes were pulled from a trash and feces filled home. Even five days after the investigation began, authorities were still finding dogs in the home.
Dogs and the Police
Police in Kirkwood, GA are taking some heat for shooting and killing a family's Labrador Retriever for apparently very little reason.
An off-duty police officer in Hialeah, FL attempted to shoot a "charging pit bull' but missed the dog and the bullet riccocheted and hit a woman that was standing nearby. The woman thankfully is going to be ok, but sort of a scary situation. Meanwhile, the bullet evidently missed the charging dog, but the officer wasn't bitten by the dog....so it looks as if the free firing of the bullet was a little pre-mature. Scary stuff...and we need to demand that police officers get better training with dogs instead of the current shoot first, ask questions later mentality that seems to exist out there right now.
Miscellanious
A great article from out of Jamaica about pit bulls and how people don't really understand them and give them a bad rap.
This is a follow up to an earlier story from this week that includes some great video footage from Fox 8 in Cleveland of a white Boxer and his owner playing with each other at the shelter. The dog got loose earlier this week and then was tasered multiple times by police and is now being detained because police officials are claiming the dog is a pit bull and should be killed. This whole story highlights the ridiculousness of BSL as now valuable animal control resources are being used to detain this dog that is obviously not aggressive -- and obviously not a pit bull. This diverts resources from dogs that are truly aggressive dogs or have truly neglegent owners. To the city of Lakewood: Accidents happen. Fine the owner for the loose dog and send him home. And quit tying up resources in the name of your own neglegence ignorant laws trying to defend your actions. Say you're sorry and be done with it. You're wasting everyone's time and wasting taxpayer dollars. And continuing to embarrass yourselves. And this isn't the first time.
A great article about TNR programs in Chicago helping to curb the feral cat populations.
Good article from Charlotte, NC -- Despite attack, some (including true experts) point to pit bulls' bad rap
Blog Postings for the week
Some really great blog postings from the internets this week that deserve their own category:
One Bark at a Time: A Public Service Announcement for Commercial Dog Breeders.
The Pet Connection: Orwellian Language Redux: I don't think "abandon' means what you think it means.
Our Pack: Introducing Your Dog to a New Dog
Lassie Get Help:Good cop/bad cop, live dog/dead dog
Wayne Pacelle: Anti-Dogfighting Training Camp (The blog posting is in its usual self-glorifying tone, but I am a really big fan of this program and the pictures and acompanying picture gallary alone are worth the visit.
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