KC DOG BLOG

Breed Specific Law in Ohio is no more

Just a few minutes ago, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed HB 14 into law. HB 14 removes the designation of all "pit bulls' as being potentially aggressive and replaces the law with a breed-neutral, behavior based law.

A huge congrats goes out to the many people in Ohio, Representative Barbara Sears, as well as many national organizations, for their diligent work in making this happen. I've gotten the pleasure to meet many of the folks involved in this repeal over the years and am blown away by their knowledge and dedication. To everyone who worked for years to make this happen, congrats.

The repeal passed with 70% of the votes from the House of Representatives, 84% from the Senate, and a confirming approval of the Governor. Not only does the signing of the bill end the reign of the breed-specific law in Ohio, the decisiveness of the voting indicates the changing nature of attitudes about breed-specific laws among lawmakers who are continuing to note that breed-specific laws are not an effective solution to solving dog bites -- but that behavior-based ordinances are.

Ohio's Breed-Specific law has stood since 1987. At the time, the state legislature passed a bill through very quickly after a very well-publicized attack involving a physician who was attacked after visiting a prostitute. The law was passed as an act of Panic Policy-Making -- and stood for 25 years. In spite of knee jerk policy, the Ohio law has been used by breed ban advocates as a reason why breed-specific laws are a good idea (even though Ohio was the ONLY state with a law targeting breeds of dogs and 14 states actually forbid such legislation).

But the law is no more: signaling not only a change in laws but a change in attitudes, a change in perspectives, a change in the ideas of what constitutes effective canine legislation and a change in the lives of the owners of these types of dogs.

This is good for the dogs. And for the people.

Great news out of the state of Ohio today.  Great news indeed.

Congratulations Ohio

Today, the state House of Representatives voted 67-30 to pass HB 14. HB 14 is a bill that will repeal the state's state-wide law that defines 'pit bulls' as "vicious'.

Last week, the Senate passed HB 14 with a vote of 27-5.

Now, with 70% of the votes from the House, and 84% from the Senate, the bill goes to the Governor for final approval. The Governor has 10 days to sign the bill. Veto it. Or if he does nothing, the bill passes.

Congrats to the many folks who have been involved in repealing this law -- including many great folks in Ohio and representatives from Best Friends.

It's a good day. One more step left. Fingers crossed. But hats off to all the folks who have been fighting for this for decades.

Congrats.  It's a good day.

A good day for the pit bulls

Yesterday was a good day for the dogs.  And for people who care about dogs.  And for society as a whole.

There is still work to do. But yesterday was a good day.

Yesterday, the Senate in the state of Ohio passed HB 14 by a vote of 25-7   27-5.  The bill would eliminate any reference to 'pit bulls' being designated as "vicious", and would instead focus efforts on definining vicious dogs based on behaviors, not on breeds. The bill would eliminate Ohio's breed discriminatory law.

The law now goes back to the House. The House passed HB 14 by a vote of 69-29 late last year, but now has to re-vote as some friendly amendments were added in the Senate (that made the law better and removed some due-process issues that existed in the House version). If passed by the House, it will got to the Governor for signing. If this happens, 'pit bulls' would be treated like all other dogs under Ohio law, and Ohio would go no longer be the only state in the union with a breed-specific law (while 14 states prohibit such laws).

Meanwhile, in Florida, the state House of Representatives Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee passed HB 997 unanimously (14-0, with one persone not present).  HB 997 essentially removes the grandfather clause on Florida's state wide ban on breed-specific laws which would effectively eliminate Miami-Dade's breed ban (which exists in spite of the state-wide law because it was grandfathered in). The law is simple, and takes the prohibition of breed-specific laws and eliminates the grandfather clause.

This bill has a long way to go, but the 14-0 passage out of the Ag Committee is an outstanding start.  The bill now must be heard by the Community and Military Affairs Committee and the State Affairs Committee.  Both should hear the bill in the next week or two.  Stop BSL has been doing OUTSTANDING work with all the details of this bill.

Again, this bill has a long way to go, but this is definitely a step in the right direction and the unanimous support in the committe is a great first step.

Not to be outdone, today, the Genesee County, MI Board of Commissioners lifted its long-term ban on' pit bull' adoptions. The move protects 'pit bulls' from being automatically killed at the shelter when they aren't claimed by their owners. Policies like the one in Genesee County are one of the major reasons why the majority of the dogs killed in shelters in this country are 'pit bulls".  This will lead to a large number of dogs being saved in Genessee County that otherwise would have been killed just because of how they looked.

These changes over the past couple of days are huge for pit bulls in various parts of the US -- and not just for the dogs, but the owners as well. And what may be more important, that these changes are showing that attitudes toward "pit bulls" are changing and that society is no longer content just killing good, healthy, happy dogs because of how they look.

There is a lot of work to do -- but it's a good day for the dogs. And their owners. And society. Congrats to folks in Ohio, Michigan and Florida (and elsewhere who have helped in changing peoples' minds about these types of dogs).  It's been a good day.

 

 

Ohio HB 14 heard by the Senate tomorrow -- and possible vote.

Tomorrow, January 18th, Ohio HB 14 is going to be heard by the full Ohio Senate and is scheduled for a vote.

HB 14 would remove statewide breed-designation of 'pit bulls' being "vicious" dogs.

The Senate hearing begins at 1:30 EST tomorrow.

Send good Karma to Ohio folks....it could be a very good day.

Ohio BSL Repeal Bill -- Hearing tomorrow, 12/13

From Jodi at Bless the Bullies, the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on HB 14 tomorrow, 12/13, at 3:15 i nthe North Hearing Room on the 2nd Floor of the Senate Building in Columbus.

This will be the second time that the bill has been heard by the Senate after passing the House earlier this year.

There will be three friendly amendments proposed which I've heard are good (still trying to get some clarification). I think one of the amendments is going to shore up a due process issue that a lot of people have been concerned about.  I'm not sure about the others.

If you can make it to the Senate tomorrow, please show up and show your support. If the amendments pass, this will have to go back to the House of Representatives.

 

HB 14 Proponent Hearing Scheduled for Tuesday, Dec 6

Proponent Testimony for HB 14 -- the bill in Ohio that would repeal the state's 25 year old breed specific legislation -- has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 6, at 3:15 in the North Room of the Ohio State Senate Building.

Ohio is the only state with a state-wide breed-specific law. It was passed very hastily, and this bill, having already passed the House of Representatives, is an excellent opportunity to repeal the law. If you live in Ohio, and particularly if you live close to Columbus, please go and show your support.

 

Positive Momentum for BSL repeals

Last month, in my monthly Top 5, I noted a couple of posts that I thought showed some momentum toward repealing BSL.

At the time, I noted that in October, Moses Lake, WA repealed their breed specific law, as did Morgan, UT.  The United Kingdom House of Lords passed the third reading of their BSL repeal -- a major step toward a full repeal of their 25 year old breed ban.

And in November, the momentum continues.

Early this week, the community of Overland, MO repealed the breed-specific portion of their newly passed dangerous dog law. They passed the law a few months ago and it was set to take effect in 2012 - but the council listened to constituents, dog owners and experts from their community and repealed the ban before it took effect. You can see more here.

Meanwhile, another St. Louis area suburb is also looking to repeal their breed-specific law. On December 7, Wentzville, MO is planning on addressing the law after many residents came forward and said the law was too restricitive by requiring affected dogs to be in an outside kennel unless it was leashed and muzzled and if the dog was inside the house, the windows could not be open.  

This form of forced isolation actually decreases socialization and has a net negative impact on public safety.

Several residents noted either considering moving from the city or have alread moved from the city. One alderman, Chris Gard, has noted that he wants to eliminate the breed-specific requirements. "With the information we have today, it is difficult to write breed-specific laws," said Gard. "It is much easier to write better laws that are not breed-specific. I think the board will see that in our discussion."  The evidence of the difficulty they're having with breed identification can be seen here with a picture of two dogs that were declared to be 'pit bulls' under the law.  Neither has reportedly been involved in any aggessive incidents.  Good luck to the great folks in Wentzville in closing this deal.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, the state Senate heard testimony for HB 14 -- a bill that would remove their state-wide breed-specific legislation. Rep Barbara Sears helped push this bill through the Ohio House -- where it passed by a vote of 69-29 earlier this year. She testified for the bill earlier this week.  Heck, even country music legend Willie Nelson testified in support of HB 14 -- calling the breed-specific law "archaic".

The bill is designed to create designations for "nuissance", "dangerous", "vicious" based on their behaviors, not breed -- and also adds in due process language (which doesn't exist in their current law).  This is the start of a couple of month long process in Ohio to hopefully eliminate the only state-wide breed-specific law in the U.S. 

Can you feel the momentum?  It used to take an entire year to get this many repeals and progress toward repeals....now, all of this has happened just in the past 6 weeks. 

Attitudes are changing, and people are realizing that breed discriminatory laws are not an effective solution to the dangerous dog problems.  It's great to see, and good luck to those who are making forward progress in their communities.

Ohio HB 14 to be heard by the State House of Representatives TOMORROW 6/28

In a note form the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates, they have learned that HB 14 -- a bill that would remove BSL from Ohio state law and replace it with a good, state-wide behavior-based policy, will be heard by the entire House of Representatives TOMORROW, 6/28. The bill passed through committee two weeks ago by a vote of 10-2.

If you live in the state of Ohio, please contact your state Representative and urge them to vote YES on HB 14.

 

 

Ohio HB 14 hearing again TOMORROW

HB 14, a bill that would remove the breed-specific language from the Ohio state law and replace it with some very solid behavior-based policies, is scheduled to be heard again tomorrow, Wednesday, 6/15, at 9 am in the Ohio State House room 114.

If voted on and passed, HB 14 would then move on to the Senate and provide an opportunity to remove breed-specific language from the only state in the US that has breed-specific language in its codes.

If you live in or around the Columbus area, please show up in suport of HB 14.

h/t to Stop BSL on the news -- and who also has posted the full, revised text of HB 14.

Yesterday's Ohio House Discussion of HB 14

Yesterday, the Ohio House of Representatives debated HB 14 - -a bill that was proposed to remove the state-wide classification of 'pit bulls' as dangerous dogs. Ohio is the only state with such a law.

The bill underwent a lot of changes yesterday -- but it sounds as if most of the discussion was good.

HB14 - in its current form - sets up 3 different classifications for problem dogs based solely on the behavior of the dog (and owner) and is breed neutral. The three classifications are:

1) Nuissance Dog -- a dog that while off its owner's property threatens, manaces or attempts to bite a person.

2) Dangerous dog - one that has caused an injury to a person, killed another dog or had 3 violations as a nuissance dog.  Once a dog is classified as dangerous, the owner must register the dog, purchase liability insurance, microchip the dog and afix a tag to its collar.

3) A vicious dog -- is on that has caused serious injury to a person through a bite.

The bill also sets criminal penalties for violators -- including making a fatal dog attack on a human a 4th degree felony and a 1st degree misdemeanor for major attacks.

The new bill also restricts convicted felons from owning dangerous dogs.

Proposals to remove the breed-specific restrictions from the state bill have long been opposed by the Ohio Dog Wardens Association.  But HB 14 now has their support as they feel it gives them an opportunity to fix many of the due process issues involved the state's current breed-specific law -- and they feel it will do a better job of protecting the public and holding owners of vicious dogs accountable.

It is hoped that HB 14 will pass the House in the summer session and then be moved to the Senate.  So far the debate has seemed good and we are progression toward a new law that would reflect more modern thought when it comes to addressing issues with dangerous dogs -- although the bill has yet to be voted on in the House.

Fingers crossed.