Elli McAllister lost her dog this week in Hamilton -- a town in Canada that passed BSL a year ago. Her dog was caught at-large and was unneutered. The dog will be destroyed.
She didn't think the law applied to her dog because the dog was only 1/4 pit bull. However, the people at the city think the dog is a pit bull.
I don't know Elli --but she doesn't look like a criminal. And looks like someone who would give a dog a good home. These are the people affected by BSL. The law doesn't affect the people it is usually designed to target.
It's pretty bad when even ordinary joe's who aren't involved in the animal welfare community are noticing the media bias. Here's a letter from Dan Wood of Independence that wants to know why only pit bull attacks make the news. Seems like no one cared that his friend was attacked by German Shepherds. Sad on so many levels. I had written a letter to the Kansas City Star a couple of weeks ago. There were three fatal dog attacks around the country within about a 9 day window. Horrible. Meanwhile, the Star picked up only the one fatality involving a pit bull and another story about a pit bull bite, but completely ignored the two stories that involved Rottweilers that killed two young kids in two separate incidences. I pointed out their bias -- and of course, got no response.
The amount of media bias that exists out there against Pit Bulls is appalling. There is a great case study on the National Canine Research Foundation Website that points us to the four major dog incidents in the same day this summer.
1) A three year old boy was attacked by a Golden Retriever in Virginia -- the story was picked up by two local Virginia Newspapers.
2) A three year old girl was attacked by a labrador - it was reported in only four local Colorado media outlets.
3) A woman and her small dog were attacked by a German Shepherd in Indiana. It was picked up in one local Indiana newspaper.
4) An 11 year old girl was attacked by a pit bull in California -- this story was picked up by 91 national and international media outlets including Forbes, Fox News, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other local and national news organizations.
All four attacks were terrible and required the victims to go to the hospital. The only real difference in the attacks was the breed of dog involved.
It's becoming really obvious. It has been obvious to people who follow this for some time -- but now random people are picking up on it and dog attack victims of dogs other than pit bulls feel like no one cares about their situation (and sadly, they don't). We should demand better of our local media outlets...
This is a phrase I hope to never hear again. Last night I attended the Raytown meeting discussing their dangerous dog ordinance and breed specific legislation (more to come on that, I promise, it was a 4 1/2 hour meeting so there is a lot of ground to cover). During the reading of the BSL, one phrase got used no fewer than 8 times: "Humanely Destroyed".
With that, I looked up the definition of euthanasia. I was pretty sure I knew the meaning, but wanted to be sure I knew. Here's the definition: Also called mercy killing.the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition.
I want to get one thing straight with any type of pit bull ban that calls for the "euthanasia" or "Humanely destroying" pit bulls that don't comply with the ordinance. We're not saving these dogs from painful terminal cancer here. We're killing happy healthy dogs -- most of whom are only guilty of one thing, being a pit bull. I think it's time we quit sugar-coating what's going on with "euthnanized", "humanely destroying" or "amnisty"-type programs. We're sentencing dogs to die. Although in a more humane way than clubbing them in the head, the end result is the same.
And while we're at it, I think anyone who votes for such a law should be forced to spend an afternoon at their local shelter giving the lethal injection. I want them to have to see, feel and experience the results of their own hatred.
The new KC law enforcing the mandatory spay/neuter of all pit bulls goes into effect on Friday. That is the first day that people can be prosecuted for having an unaltered pit bull. The first offense carries a $500 fine. According to Lesly Forsberg - head of animal control, they are prepared to enforce the law on a complaint basis.
This new law is going to be a disaster. It almost makes me sad to think about the people who are stuck with this law.
As part of the passing of this ordinance, KCMO also allocated $350,000 to hire 11 more Animal Control Officers. They have added 7 to this point. I may be wrong on this, but I believe they started with 14 on staff -- so they've added 50% more staff to handle the ordinance.
What no one is really talking about is that the new staff still isn't even CLOSE to enough for them to enforce their current laws. In the city council meeting this summer, then head of Animal Control, Mike Schumacher said that in 2005, KCMO animal control respponded to 16,000 of the 80,000 calls that they received. Yes folks, that's 20%. So even by increasing the # of animal control officers -- even with NO new laws, KCMO would still only be prepared to answer about 30% of its calls.
But with the new law, they are encouraging MORE people to call in MORE dogs to animal control. Given that they currently only have the staff to handle 30% of their incoming calls, what's a few more unanswered calls? Or, more likely, they'll spend their time in the short term dealing with calls for contained, unaggressive and unaltered pit bulls instead of dealing with stray dogs, dog packs, dog fighting or aggressive dogs -- you know, things that would impact public safety. Or, better yet, sitting in appeals court trying to determine if a dog is a pitbull or not with a group of veterinarians who can't agree on the dog's primary breed.
I think we need to do something about the huge dog overpopulation problem -- especially in our inner cities. But giving more unenforcable laws to an animal control group that can still only handle 1/3 of it's incoming calls is a joke...with no chance of success.
What scares me more is that when this doesn't work, someone, somewhere, the next time a pit bull bites someone will say "we didn't do enough -- so let's ban pit bulls now". Ignorance can snowball...and in this case, I think it will.
Sorry for the graphic photo. This is a picture of a man that was attacked yesterday that ran in the Birmingham Post (UK).
Apparently, in some type of horrendous, racially motivated, hate crime, two thugs suck their pit bulls on him shouting "kill" and "go for the neck" as they cheered on their dogs.
Pit bulls are currently banned in the UK.
A lot of cummunities try to enforce pit bull bans because they want to control this undesireable element. What they don't seem to get is that laws don't affect criminals.
Instead of using the resources that are necessary for enforcing some type of breed ban, that largely affects law-abiding citizens, why do cities not get that if they used the resources necessary to enforce the breed ban to try to go after the type of owners that would train their dogs to attack someone. THESE are the people who pose a public threat -- and aren't subject to laws. They may decide to keep using pit bulls (as these men did) or move onto another breed of dog like a Rottweiler or Presa Canerio. Either way, the problem isn't solved...but resources are used to gather up pit bulls from law-abiding owners.
As the old saying goes, If pit bulls are outlawed, only outlaws will have pit bulls.
There was another story in the Independence Examiner yesterday. There are a lot of experts quoted in this...and some pretty direct words said about some of the cities that passed forms of Breed Specific Legislation this past summer. I wonder how it would feel to sit on one of those councils right now and listen to other cities like Olathe getting praised for their ordinance while people criticize your "knee-jerk" decision. It would have to make you second guess I'd think...unless of course you were so arrogant as to think you were right and everyone else was wrong.
It's always suprised me how few cities get the difficulty of determining a breed of dog when they pass BSL. If you've never played the "find a pit bull" game, you can here and try for yourself. Most cities that have enacted BSL have put in a generic characteristics that "resemble a pit bull". We've seen recently how "resemble" can be a very vague term that can lead to problems -- like this week in Independence.
One city, Shawnee, KS, has determined that a dog is a pit bull if it has more than half of the characteristics of an AKC registered pit bull. So base on these characteristics, your dog is a pit bull if 6 of these characteristics apply to your dog:
General Appearance The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a smooth-coated dog. It should be of great strength for its size and, although muscular, should be active and agile.
Size, Proportion, Substance Height at shoulder: 14 to 16 inches. Weight: Dogs, 28 to 38 pounds.
Head
Short, deep through, broad skull, very pronounced cheek muscles, distinct stop, short foreface, black nose. Pink (Dudley) nose to be considered a serious fault. Eyes--Dark preferable. Round, of medium size, and set to look straight ahead. Light. Ears--Rose or half-pricked and not large. Mouth--A bite in which the outer side of the lower incisors touches the inner side of the upper incisors.
Neck, Topline, Body The neck is muscular, rather short, clean in outline and gradually widening toward the shoulders. The body is close coupled, with a level topline, wide front, deep brisket and well sprung ribs being rather light in the loins. The tail is undocked, of medium length, low set, tapering to a point and carried rather low.
Forequarters Legs straight and well boned, set rather far apart, without looseness at the shoulders and showing no weakness at the pasterns, from which point the feet turn out a little. Dewclaws on the forelegs may be removed. The feet should be well padded, strong and of medium size.
Hindquarters The hindquarters should be well muscled, hocks let down with stifles well bent. Legs should be parallel when viewed from behind. Dewclaws, if any, on the hind legs are generally removed. Feet as in front.
Coat Smooth, short and close to the skin, not to be trimmed or de-whiskered.
Color Red, fawn, white, black or blue, or any of these colors with white. Any shade of brindle or any shade of brindle with white.
Gait Free, powerful and agile with economy of effort. Legs moving parallel when viewed from front or rear. Discernible drive from hind legs.
Temperament From the past history of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the modern dog draws its character of indomitable courage, high intelligence, and tenacity. This, coupled with its affection for its friends, and children in particular, its off-duty quietness and trustworthy stability, makes it a foremost all-purpose dog.
Disqualification Black-and-tan or liver color.
Off the top of my head I can think of about 20 breeds of dogs that fit this profile. Heck, any dog of any color other than a black and tan combo would be qualified for 2 of the 6. Now consider all of the bad breeding that takes place, the cross breeding, the mixed breeds etc, and it's virtually impossible to tell. I've been dealing with pit bull rescue for several years and it's very rare to see one that meets the weight requirement (most I see are around 50-60 lb dogs).
Look at your dog -- could it be mistaken for a pit bull by meeting 6 of the above criteria?
After 250 articles in the Kansas City Star, and hundreds of others on each of the tv news stations, finally Fox 4, with correspondent Gene Fox, put together a fabulous series that looks at the "pit bull issue" with information from the actual experts in the field. Ledy Van Kavage from the ASPCA, Dr. JC Burcham, Olathe Veterinarian and a fine special appearance from Nick Swearngin from the Lee's Summit City Council. This also includes a special appearance by some dog-training friends we've met this summer and my beautiful wife and I (who are expert owners of wonderful pups).
Check out the news feature here -- or wake up early and catch it in real time between 5:45 and 6 am on Friday before you head off to catch the big Friday sales.
My special Thanksgiving Thank You to Gene Fox for doing this series that provide the much-needed positive perspective on pit bulls for this community. This is the best feature I've seen in a long time. Thank you Gene.
And while I'm giving thanks, a special thank you to all my friends at KCDA and throughout the metro who I've met at city council meetings discussing BSL -- you all have become great friends.
And a thank you to KC, MO -- who in spite of passing a pretty dumb law, at least I am able to keep my dogs at home, and my family together, without having to move. Sadly, even with the dumb law, I'm luckier than a lot of the people I've met over the summer.
We know that bad policy is really frustrating. In the instance of KCK, they're "pit bull" ban was passed in 1989 -- and yet it's been so enforcable they've killed over 500 pit bulls in KCK this year. KCK doesn't have the resouces to enfore their own ordinances, which leaves hundreds of stray dogs wandering the streets, pit bulls still in homes, dog fighting still taking place, etc. But somehow the pit bull ban is supposed to make people safer.
In response to the horrible fatality of Jimmie Mae McConnell this past summer in a dog attack, KCK put out an amnesty program that people could bring in their pit bulls and not suffer the consequences of owning an illegal dog. Of course I would be hard pressed to think that any of the drug dealing thugs actually brought in their dogs -- but it was actual law-abiding people who turned their dogs in to be killed.
One of the worst aspects of a bad law is that it then becomes a precedent for other people's bad laws. Now, KCK's amnesty program is being used as an example of an effective idea by people in Northern Ireland (who I'm sure have no idea of KCK's complete incompetance as a city goverenment). I'm going to post the story in it's entirety here -- primarily because I have some comments I want to insert in blue. There are all kinds of things messed up in this article:
Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent Wednesday November 22, 2006 The Guardian
Combat knives and unwanted firearms are the common currency of police amnesties. Ballymena council, however, is preparing to recover a different sort of illegal weapon: pit bull terriers. Pit Bull terriers are "illegal weapons"?
Starting in January, the Northern Ireland authority will hold what is believed to be the UK's first "pit bull amnesty". In return for handing in the dangerous dogs But what if mine isn't dangerous?, owners will escape prosecution (but not escape persecution).
The proposal, backed by Ballymena's environmental services committee this week, follows a spate of pit bull attacks across the province. Police officers have had to shoot enraged dogs dead four times this year. (I think we learned yesterday that just because a police officer shoots it doesn't mean it's dangerous) In west Belfast, the police had to (have to or did?) put eight bullets into an animal to stop it. On another occasion a bus was abandoned after an unaccompanied pit bull terrorised passengers (I should read up on this one, because I'm invisioning a bomb-like thing from the movie Speed). In the most recent attack, a family walking near Randalstown, County Antrim, were attacked by a pit bull; the children were saved by their pet labrador, which was savaged (nice word choice) to death.
This summer the city of Kansas (this is Kansas City Kansas) experimented with a similar amnesty, sparking opposition from some US dog owners (and people who knew how corrupt their government is). Northern Ireland's dangerous dogs order is slightly different from the law in England: the regulations are enforced by council dog wardens rather than the police and magistrates do not have any discretion to stop a pit bull being put down.
"These are illegal dogs," said Nigel Devine, Ballymena's dog warden. "A lot of people don't know they have them. They think they have a Staffordshire bull terrier. (Translated: I have no idea the difference either, but I'm assuming they're all pit bull terriers)
"The amnesty will allow people to bring them in and we can examine them. If I get just one dog handed in, that's one off the street." Several pit bull breeders are thought to operate near the Irish border. The dogs are not illegal in the republic.
Elli McAllister lost her dog this week in Hamilton -- a town in Canada that passed BSL a year ago. Her dog was caught at-large and was unneutered. The dog will be destroyed.
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