KC DOG BLOG

A rough night for BSL advocates at the polls

It was a tough night for local politicians who favored Breed Specific Legislation throughout the country yesterday.

In Whitehall, OH, Jaquelin Thompson was voted out of office on a recall vote with 75% of voters saying she should be removed from office. Thompson was responsible for not once, but twice, trying to ban pit bulls in the community of Whitehall. She was removed from office two years before her term was up.  Also in Whitehall, the only other council member who voted in favor of a ban on 'pit bulls' when it came up for a vote last year, Leslie LaCorte, was also voted out of office in favor of Van Gregg.  LaCorte got only 41% of the vote.

(Special thanks to my friends at Help Fido for their Twitter updates last night to keep me up to speed on the latest news in Whitehall).

Update:  Here's an article from the Whitehall News: Thompson Sent Packing; Voters overwhelmingly agree councilwoman needs to go.

Meanwhile in Sioux City, IA, incumbant Jim Rixner who supported the city's breed ban last fall was voted out of office. Even Rixner admits that the new dog ordinance most likely cost him the election:

"The vote was split because people were angry about dog ordinances and the Chamber's furious effort to make sure I didn't get re-elected," said Rixner, who was running for his second term on council.

Both he and Rappolt received endorsements from labor organizations, but Rixner said he believes a lot of people "plunked" for Rappolt "because they wanted to see the (vicious) dog ordinance changed."

Rixner supported passage of a stricter vicious dog law and endorsed the pit bull ban, defending both votes during the campaign."

These politicians have followed others around the country, in places like Kansas City, MO; Merriam, KS; Raytown, MO; Overland Park, KS; and Omaha, NE who have been voted out of office shortly after their irresponsible dog legislation was passed -- or, after they proposed a ban on particular breeds of dogs in their city and it did not pass.

People are becoming increasingly aware of the realitities of Breed Bans - -and that they are costly to cities, impossible to enforce, ineffective, and not based on rational decision-making. It ignores all science and the public positions of every single nationally-respected organization that has expertise in canine/human interactions.

And because of this, people are beginning to consistently vote politicians out of office who favor this irresponsible legislation.  And I've written about it before, but I do think that BSL can serve as a pretty solid litmus test for candidates.  

And hats off to the people in these communities who are taking a stand against irresponsible legislation and the politicians who support it. We can make a difference by being involved politically and getting politcians in office who are animal-friendly.

If you're not involved politically, you are no longer a victim of what politicians do to you, you're a participant.

Congrats to our local politicans

Yesterday marked election day in many of our Kansas City communities, and we had a pretty great day.  My hats off to all of the winners.

We had a few big wins yesterday, that I wanted  to leave a quick note about:

In Merriam, KS, mayor Carl Wilkes, who pushed for breed specific language in their dog ordinance in 2006 finished 3rd place in their 3 person race.  Ken Sissom will be replacing him as mayor.

In Olathe, KS, Marge Vogt, who pushed hard against BSL in her city, retained her seat with 65% of the vote. Newcomer Ron Ryckman is also a welcome addition to the Olathe council.

Gladstone, MO elected 2 new city council members last night. Dog friendly candidate Barry McCullough has now joined the ranks on the council, replacing Wayne Beers who voted in favor of the city's breed ban in 2006.  Mark Revenaugh, who voted against the ban in 2005, retained his position.

In Grandview, MO, we got a great candidate in office in Michael Ferguson.  Mike was running unopposed, but it is great to see him finally in office. I met Mike several years ago when he interviewed me for his online interview program "Missouri Viewpoints"  and I'm personally very excited for him to be in office.

One of the bigger wins of the night was in Raytown, MO, where Shane Par-Due upset Greg Walters in the election. Walters had held that council seat for 25 years, but 3 years ago he proposed an ordinance that would have banned 7 - 10 breeds of dogs from the city -- which brought out nearly 100 Raytown voters to a city council meeting in protest. Walters has since admitted that that one act may have cost him more votes than anything he has ever done in his political career. That very thing became a point of the political debate late in the campaign. Par-Due received 57% of the votes.  Of other note, City Councilman Jim Hamilton also maintained his seat receiving 59% of the votes. Hamilton voted against Walters' ordinance and also attended a KCDA sponsored community forum prior to the ordinance. Welcome aboard Shane and welcome back Jim.

Meanwhile, in one non-local election that I am excited about, Jim Suttle advanced to the general election for the open Mayoral seat in Omaha. He will contest Hal Daub in the general election on May 12. Both candidates are running for the office vacated by Mike Fahey -- who was one of the leading proponents of Omaha's new breed specific law. Daub, who was mayor of Omaha from 1994-2001 was a favorite to advance. Suttle, who from the get-go was against the breed specific ordinance, was running against Jim Vokal, who was another proponent of the ordinance.  In the end, Daub received 35.6% of the votes, while Suttle received 34.3% of the votes. Vokal, who gave up his city council seat to run for mayor, received only 28% of the vote.  I know a large number of dog owners in Omaha who campaigned and voted yesterday and are going to be thrilled to have Vokal out of the mix.

All in all, it was a pretty great day. Not perfect...but very good. Hats off to all of the winners in elections yesterday.  I wish you much success in your new (or renewed) ventures into public service.  And I hope that you make decisions with knowledge, wisdom, and empathy.

Tomorrow is politics as usual

 Tomorrow is election day in many communities throughout the Kansas City metro.

Once again, Kansas City Dog Advocates has sent out questionaires to many of the candidates seeking their point of view on many important pet related topics and posted their ratings on our website.  We have updated questionaires back from candidates in Olathe, Overland Park, Merriam, Kansas City, KS; Raytown, Gladstone and Greenwood, MO.

We at KCDA know that there are a lot of issues that affect voters that will lead them to support particular candidates -- particularly given our tough economy. However, we also know that pets and pet-related issues are extremely important to many citizens in the KC metro, and as such, are striving to provide information on candidates and their views on important pet-related topics.

Over the past several years we have been very successful in getting non-pet-friendly candidates out of office and replacing them with more pet-friendly ones.

So go out and support your candidates.  Voting isn't just a privilege in our country, it is a responsibility.   As the old addage goes, at some point, you no longer can claim to be a victim of a political situation -- you have become a participant.

So vote. Pass info on to others in your rescue groups. And take back control of our governments.

And if you don't see your city in our ratings -- ask us how to get involved and we'll help you get started in your community for the next election cycle.

Good luck to all of the pet-friendly candidates out there.

Building a No-Kill Kansas City (part 2)

So last night, I posted about some of the great work our friends at Animal Haven were doing on the west side of our state line.  I think having the shelter in KCMO privatize will help also.   And while we are making progress, there is still a lot that needs to be done in the other counties (and states) in our metro.

There are a couple of big obstacles that are standing in our way from becoming a completely No-Kill community.

1) Public shelter managers who are unwilling to make changes that will lead to the ending of the senseless killing of healthy dogs and cats.

2) Laws that have been put in place that are getting in the way of No-Kill.

I think we can overcome the first issue if enough people demand it.  If the public outrage over senseless killing becomes loud enough, the shelter managers who are NOT interested in saving lives will be removed. 

The second issue is one that Kansas City Dog Advocates is attempting to tackle head on.

There are many laws in the Kansas City area that are getting in the way of No-Kill. Some are hurting pet retention, because pets are removed from homes. Some are hurting adoptions, because there are fewer homes to adopt to. Some are hurting foster programs, because people cannot take in the animals.

In short, we need to change a large number of these laws and policies and how we view animal control laws.  This is the focus of our group.

One of our focuses has been on repealing breed discriminatory laws (BSL).  Breed bans throughout our metro have made it very difficult to find homes for bully-breed dogs. Currently, about 1/3 of the potential homes in our community are not options for these dogs. This is why dogs like Gramby, from Animal Haven, spend an inordinate amount of time in shelter care instead of in homes. Breed based laws also makes owner retention even more difficult, as perfectly great dogs like Nikko, Fleas and Brutus(and dozens of others) are removed from homes because of the way they look, not because of the way they act.  The last 3 examples were all victims of BSL in Kansas City, KS.  It is so bad there that Boxer, Mastiffs, anything brindle, short haired or short muzzled has a target on their head.

Arbitrary pet limit laws, mandatory spay/neuter laws, breed bans, outdated vaccination requirements, laws that prevent trap/neuter return programs and punish caretakers of feral cat colonies all have a hand in removing animals from homes, give AC more tools to seize and kill, keeping animals from going to good homes, or eliminate potential foster families that can provide better homes for animals waiting for forever homes.

And all of these laws can be replaced with policies that are better for animals -- all can be done with no decrease in public safety.

We are stepping up our efforts in this arena. Two weeks ago, the community of Greenwood repealed their BSL.  We are getting involved in the politics of more communities in the Kansas City area by posting political ratings on candidates on a variety of pet-related policies in cities throughout the metro (you can click on "politics" at the top, and find your individual city - as always, this is a work in progress).

There are a lot of reasons to go to the polls and cast your votes. But as a pet-owning population, the desires for pet friendly policies have too often been ignored. According to the AVMA pet owner census, 60% of the US population currently owns pets. We are the majority. While we should demand a lot of things from our public officials, pet-friendly policies shouldn't be too much to ask.  Why is it be that 60% of the population that owns and cares for pets, has to settle for politicians that institute oppresive policies that increase the number of our pets killed in our communites and compromise our safety?

Short answer: They don't.

Additionally, KCDA is going to be kicking off some programs in the Kansas City area to help others learn how to get involved politicaly in their communities -- so their voices can be heard. We understand that getting involved in politics is a little scary for some. We want to help provide some simple structure and some peace of mind about diving in.  And it starts with one simple rule -- your city council members are voted on by you, hired by you, to work for you.

We're kicking this off with a KCDA Happy Hour on April 1st at 75th Street Brewery. The event kicks off at 5:30 (it is not a fundraiser, so the only cost you incur is whatever you eat and drink).  We'll be in the sectioned off area in the back of the restaurant.

Following this, we will be having a KCDA 101 meeting. The meeting is designed to be a community forum on the different laws that affect the no-kill model, ways to get involved and hopefully the knowledge and enthusiasm you need to go out and affect positive change in your communities. The first KCDA 101 meeting will be held on April 25th, from 3-5 at the Trails West Library (6242 Swope Parkway)- Room A - in Kansas City, MO. 

Complete information on these events can be found here.

More info to come from me on these events -- looking forward to seeing you there.

Quack

  I probably shouldn't give this woman more press, but she is EXACTLY why everyone should pay attention to who they vote for in local elections.

Ann Ogan, who next month will take over as a city councilor in North Plains, OR.,  has made her first priority as city councilor to ban pit bulls from North Plains.  The "logic" involved in this is pretty amazing -- and scary.

North Plains has a population of about 1,813.  It is a suburb of Portland, and has a average HH income of $58,602 -- which is about 20% higher than the average of the state of Oregon. The community is 88% white.  

Ogan guesses there are at least six pit bulls in North Plains - and in her eyes, that's six too many. Now let's start with the unethical (and possibly unconstitutional) nature of passing a law that specifically targets six people. While we live in a democratic nation, we also live in a free country, where a community cannot go out and bully six constituents because the "majority rules" (even though there is no evidence that the majority feels that way in this case). This is one major reason why I believe that states should get involved in this issue and ban breed specific laws. Even though I by and large feel like dog laws should be a local issue, protecting small numbers of constituents from crazy politicians in these small communities should be a state priority.

And let's face it, this is not about public safety for Ogan.  Over the past year, only 2 of the county's 25 dangerous dog citations were from 'pit bulls'.  (Washington County OR has a population of about 500,000, so has a lot of dogs).  The Hillboro (population 89,285) police department LT Mike Roucehes (who also handles police duties in North Plains) said that in the past 5 or 6 years he has only seen 2 problem pit bulls. 

So, we have had 2 problem pit bulls in 5 or 6 years in Hillsboro and North Plains. In the entire county, pit bulls make up only 8% of the dangerous dog violations - and Ms. Ogan wants to pass a law banning the 6 people in her little community from owning them?  Anyone want to venture a guess that there is a personal vendetta here that Ms. Ogan is trying to take out?

These are the people who push for breed specific laws -- the people that in spite of the numbers and the data, want it anyway, for whatever reason. Good luck to the people of North Plains in dealing with this woman for the next 4 years.  Hard telling what other baseless laws she is going to try to pass while in there.

Friday Night Fun -- Politicians are just Citizens

I'm not posting this necessarily to make fun of politicians (ok, maybe a little).  However, I often hear from people about a fear they have in reaching out to their local politicians because they are intimidated by them.

I think it's important to note that politicans are just citizens.  Just like you and me. Most are quite approachable.  And many, it turns out, really don't know all that much more about government than you or I do.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute compiled an "exam" with 33 questions about American History, Economics and Civics. 

The average politician had an average grade of just 44%. The average citizen scored a 49%.

Disturbingly, 27% of the elected officials missed the question about which right was guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution (that one is a little trickier than you'd think in the way they worded it).

Even worse, only 41% could identify the definition of business profit (which, apparently a lot of our country's businesses can't do either). 

Said Josiah Bunting, Chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI, "How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American Experience?" Ouch.

Ouch.  All I wanted to say is that politicians are just people.  Elected by you to serve you.  Make your voice heard with them. No intimidation. They just might not be really smarter than you are.

You can take the test here.

Here are the results of the citizens vs the politicians.

And a story about it here.  READ THE STORY AFTER YOU TAKE THE TEST -- otherwise you'll get a few of the answers.

And if anyone is curious, I scored a 26 out of 33 on this (79%).  I apparently need to brush up on my Abraham Lincoln history.

Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution (from an old post I just got to in my reader).

Around the horn on animal politics

In case you live in a cave, you probably  have noticed that Barack Obama will be our new President. There is a lot to like about the man. He certainly is charismatic, a great orator and has the makings of a great leader.  And hopefully he will improve how other countries around the country see us....he won't hurt the cause for sure.

Proposition 2 passed in California last night. This is a bill wildly supported by the Humane Society of the US (to the tune of about $8.5 million) that will improve the way farm animals will be treated and caged in the state.  Because the state has few pork operations, and no real veal industry to speak of, the major benefactors are the 20 million egg-laying chickens across the state.  It sounds like about 60% of Californian's voted in favor of the bill.  I still maintain that had this 60% of the population spent half as much time, money and energy promoting their cause through changing buying habits the bill would be unnecessary, but this will, overall, be good for the animals.

In Massachusetts, a second attempt by the MSPCA and Grey2K to make Greyhound racing illegal in the state passed last night.  This makes only a handful of states (including Kansas) that allow Greyhound racing. The racing itself isn't really the problem here -- it's mostly the way the animals are overbred, kept in really small kennels, and treated as so disposable after their racing days are over that make people not like the "sport".  In Kansas City, KS, one of the area's largest greyhound tracks, the Woodlands, recently closed down and a good number of their dogs ended up going to Massachusetts. Now, they'll be looking for new homes again.  My hope is that the Greyhound rescue groups and MSPCA will be able to get the support they need to find homes for all of these dogs at the end of next year.  But overall, I think this is, again, very good for the dogs.

In Ohio, both of the judges that were up for re-election that were part of the Ohio Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of the city of Toledo over Tellings and overruled the local court's declaration of the Breed Specific law as being unconstitutional both got re-elected last night. 

Any other animal-related policies that passed in your states?  Or any other major advocates that won their local seats?  Please post them in the comments below.

Tomorrow's election

 There are a record number of voters that will hit the polls tomorrow in our Presidential election. We're talking potentialy 10 million or so first-time voters. In Missouri alone, we have 340,000 new first time voters.  While 150,000 of them are 18-24 year olds, the rest other nearly 200,000 first time voters who are over the age of 25. That's pretty cool.

I've had several people ask me about the candidates and how I'd recommend voting between John McCain/Sarah Palin on the one side, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the other.  When it comes to animal welfare issues, I don't really have a terribly strong opinion on the candidates.  If you want to know how the candidates feel about animal welfare issues, Melissa has a really nice overview of their voting records over at the No Kill Nation.  (Although, I will also add that Obama was also in the Illinois State legislature and voted in favor of the bill that prohibits breed descrimination ordinances in the state of Illinois).   With the exception of Governor Palin, all seem pretty strong in animal welfare legislation.

I don't have a terribly strong opinion because I don't feel like our nation's President has all that much of a role in animal welfare issues. It's an important election, no doubt.  However, I'm going to make my selection at the polls based on economic and foreign policy stances.

However, there are hundreds of other candidates up for election for state offices that have a MUCH bigger role in animal welfare issues than our nation's President.  In Ohio, they have the opportunity to vote out two of the three State Supreme Court Judges who ruled in favor of the city of Toledo in the Tellings case.  In my own district, we have a state representative who has been very active in working on responsible legislation on commercial breeding operations (like, actually providing the funding they need to do the proper inspections and for fines on commercial breeders who don't have a license - not crazy AR restrictive stuff).  She is also up for re-election.

There are hundreds of these elections tomorrow that have a greater impact on our pets than the nation's president. I'm excited that the Presidential election has people excited to vote and take part in our political system. However, I hope this is just a start. I hope that the animal welfare community will continue to come out to the polls en masse -- but fully armed with the knowledge of how their local politicians feel about animal welfare issues that are important to them. We have a ton of voting power. It's time we start using it.

Now, let's go vote out a couple of these judges in Ohio, get a few good AW people in state legislatures, and find ourselves a new President.

Election Results are in

The election results are in -- and, well, it's a mixed bag. KMBC has a really nice poll results page with a scrolldown results menu which is pretty handy.

Independence

District 1: Dog friendly candidate Marcie Gragg returns to office with her win over Michael Butler.

District 2: Somehow the people in district 2 voted Will Swoffer back in office with 57% of the vote. I don't know a thing about Wayne Baker, but can't figure out how Swoffer got re-elected.

District 3: Myron Paris defeated Gary Hisch quite convincingly.  I don't know a lot about either candidate -- either would have been an improvement over outgoing city council woman Renee Paluka White, who I hope has fun standing on street corners getting petitions signed over the next few years.

District 4: Incumbant Jim Page won 68% of the vote. I really like Kathryn Kocan -- as she was a very dog-friendly candidate.  Page isn't the worst person in the world, and his victory was pretty easy to predict as he had all the $$ on his side.

Net/Net -- I don't know that we won enough votes to overtun the Independence ban.  However, overall, this is an improvement to the council with basically three incumbants (one being a good one) and one new person on the council. 

Lee's Summit

In District 1, Jim Hallam held his seat over Kelly Shumway in a pretty close vote. Shumway had one of our better questionaires returned.  Hallam is a decent candidate -- I don't always agree with his policies, but he has proven time and time again to be willing to meet and listen.  That's important.

District 2 was a hotly contested race with five candidates.  Allan Gray came out on top with 40% of the vote.  Gray is a dog-friendly candidate who we have a good report with. I liked Brian Whitley, his nearest competitor, also -- and hope he continues to hang around local Lee's Summit politics.

District 3:  Joseph Spallo won with 59% of the vote. Someday someone will explain this to me...

District 4: I reall y like both Bob Johnson and David Mosby.  John won a very tight race -- by a mere 24 votes.   

Net/Net: Lee's Summit had a lot of good candidates running.  Somehow Spallo retained his seat, but the rest were filled with solid dog-friendly candidates.  Way to go.

Greenwood

Richard Decourcy was re-elected in a tight race for the mayoral seat.  This was a good win for the citizens of Greenwood.

Ward 1 - Denise Simpson won by a mere 10 votes over Sharon Hutinett.  Simpson is a solid candidate.  Don't know much about Hutinett, who did not respond to our survey.

Ward 1 - Sara Ring beat out dog friendly candidate Philip Alvarado.  We don't know much about Ring, but really liked Alvarado.  It was disappointing to see him lose.

Ward 2 -- John Payne beat James Van Acker by 14 votes.  Van Acker had a great questionaire. Payne never responded.

Net/Net - -Two good candidates.  Two unknowns.  If we can get a break with one of the unknowns, we'll be in great shape in Greenwood.

Gladstone

Carol Rudi and Carol Suter both retained their seats holding off Larry Whitton.  Rudi is a great candidate who is a very dog-friendly member of the council.  Not much is known about Suter.

Net/Net -- we need to meet with Carol Suter.  There are two known anti-BSL candidates, and two known pro-BSL candidates.  Suter is the newbie and is the deciding vote (at least until we can get one of the other two out of office).

Overall - -not a bad night.  Not a great one, but not a bad one either.  There were very few surprises in these races.  Let's keep on keepin' on.

It's election day

It's election day. You know what to do.  Do a little research, and vote.  KCDA has posted the most up-to-date candidate information on their site for most of the major elections today, including Independence, Lee's Summit and Greenwood.

I also got a little validation this week for what we're doing. Last week I commented that one of the outgoing Independence city council people was the town bully.  I got a nice little email from the bully stating in no uncertain terms that even with her out of office, she will "stand on the street corners again and get signatures to override any action by the city council."  So much for the will of the voters, eh?

We're here...and we're not going away either. Go out and vote.  As dog owners, we have the largest voice of any group in this city.  Speak up.