It's been quite the week this week...on a whole bunch of fronts. I'm just going to jump right into the roundup...
Cities and Laws
Pilot Grove, MO has passed a generic dangerous dog ordinance, making it illegal for owners to not prevent their dogs from damaging property or biting anyone. I'm also pleased to note that it appears that my hometown newspaper actually has a website now.
Grain Valley, MO is looking at changes to their animal control ordinance. They are looking at a breed neutral dangerous dog ordinance which will be good for the citizens and dog owners.
De Queen, AR passed a ban on 'pit bulls' in the city. "Pit Bulls" are defined as American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and American Bulldogs -- and dogs that are a "mixture" of any of those breeds -- which might be most of the mixed breed dogs in the city. "We haven't had anyone attacked, but people are fearful of the pit bull breed," said Mayor Billy Ray Kelvy. So instead of educating people of the truth, less put legislation against a small group of people in your community that are not a problem.
Midland, TX is looking at passing three different proposals regarding animals. The first is a plan that would make microchiping your dogs mandatory -- with the hope that it will enable animal control to get more stray dogs back to their owners. The second would be increasing the qualifications for people who sell puppies to require more than a peddlers permit to sell puppies -- with the goal of eliminating the sale of puppies on street corners. The third is a requirment about how far windows need to be rolled down if a pet is left in a car so that a dog can be easily rescued if the animal appears to be in distress in the heat of the Midland, TX summers.
Clark County, NV (Las Vegas) has met a lot of opposition to an ordinance that would require all animals to be spayed or neutered at three months of age. Many people have pointed to the many studies that are out there about some of the potential health side affects of juvenile spay/neuter (such as hip displacia in male dogs, and knee ligament difficiency in female dogs, as well as bone cancer in Rottweilers and other large breed dogs). While all of this is true, my bigger concern (if you can believe there's one worse) is in the second paragraph "If a litter is born without this permit, animal control would take the puppies or kittens along with the mother." So in other words, if you have a litter of puppies, AC will take your animals and kill them at the shelter. The Humane Society supports the ordinance as a way of controlling the number of animals killed in the shelter -- however, creating a reason for animal control to take puppies (and the mother) out of homes and into the already overcrowded shelter system is an irrational (and proven to be ineffective) "solution". The ordinance mirrors a similar ordinance that went into effect in North Las Vegas last year that carries a fine of $1000 and six months in jail for having an unaltered animal. Um, yeah.
Moses Lake, WA passed the first reading of an ordinance that would not ban 'pit bulls', but would automatically declare them to be vicious, with all other types of dogs being declared vicious based on behavior. Several of the city council people appear to be against the breed specific language, and the police think it may add more work to enforcing the legislation. They will be listening to testimony from the public next week -- so go out and make your voice heard!
Webster Co. Kentucky is looking at some potential legislation that would specifically target 'pit bull' owners. If you live in or near Providence, KY in Webster, County, please attend the next meeting and help them get the information that they MUST deal with irresponsible pet owners, not breeds, in order to make the city safer.
Dog Bites
An Elgin, IL man was bitten by a "dog" that attacked him and his dog as they were out on the walk. The attacking dog is described as an American Bulldog/Mastiff mix.
A woman and two children (11 and 13) were all bitten when they were trying to help catch a yellow chow that had escaped throuh an open gate in the back yard. All three were taken to the hospital for their injuries to be treated. It is extremely important that owners teach their dogs to actually "come" when called when this type of situation arises...and also to socialize them well so they aren't fearful when other people try to catch them.
Two children (18 months an 4 years old) in Oklahoma were attacked when two pit bulls that were locked in another room somehow escaped and attacked the children. Parents, PLEASE socialize your dogs with your children. There's a poll on this one too...only 29% of the people think that pit bulls are fairly portrayed...we're making progress.
Two men in Davie, FL were bitten trying to prevent a Labrador Retriever that escaped an open gate from attacking a Scottish Terrier. Dog vs dog aggression is not a unique trait that is isolated to a particular type of dog, but shows itself in all kinds of dogs that are not properly socialized.
A three year old Bakersfield boy was attacked when he wandered unattended into the back yard where the pit bull was chained to a tree. Even though there is little evidence that directly relates chaining dogs to aggression, it is pretty apparent that prolonged tethering, and the frustration and lack of exercise and socialization that comes from the prolonged tethering is not good for dogs...and certainly not good for the unsupervised children that wander up to them. I really wish that all the headlines would say "child bitten by chained dog" vs focusing on the "pit bull' part -- which is what every media outlet did.
A 6 year old Dallas area girl was attacked by a 'pit bull' that broke the chain that it was tied to.
A 4 year old boy in Deltona, FL was attacked by a Labrador Retriever mix that was chained in the back yard of the daycare he went to. At least one tv station refers to the dog as a Lab/Pit bull mix -- but I don't see much 'pit bull' when I see the video and the pictures of the dog. It doesn't matter really though, but seeing two dogs (the daycare owner also owned a Boxer) chained in a backyard while 10 children play in the yard doesn't take much dog knowledge to understand how a dog could get overly excited and lash out in frustration.
A 9 year old boy in Ottawa (Ontario) was bitten by a 'pit bul-type dog'. If you get to the 4th or 5th paragraph, you'll note that a group of children were apparently taunting the dog that was behind a short fence and the dog jumped the fence and attacked the boy.
Abuse cases
Some guys decided to use the kitten in this video like a kick ball. The cat had some major injuires including having a leg amputated.
A Lawrence, KS man is being accused of animal cruelty after 29 dogs were removed from a neglectful situation, including several of the animals having their teeth filed down.
As many as a 100 people are sought for arrest and 187 animals have been seized following a huge dog fighting bust in a warehouse in Houston. Apparently a couple of undercover officers infiltrated the dog fighting ring and found a group with high-dollar gambling with thousands of dollars going on single matches. Apparently the people who are looking at some quality jail time range from being school teachers with no criminal records to hard core criminals. They're all felons now...
Media Hyperbole
In Bellville, IL, an 8 year old boy was "mangled", "attacked" and "mauled" by a 'pit bull". The boy was treated at the hospital and released the same day. Mangled for a same day release?
Miscellanious
A pit bull in St. Paul is nursing and caring for a litter of German Shepherd puppies whose mother was hit and killed by a car.
Kansas city police officers shot a 'pit bull' this week. Police were apparently at the home at 3:20 am, and the dog broke its chain and police shot the dog. According to the owner, the dog was a "trained attack dog" -- in a neighborhood of Kansas City that has high crime, poverty and unemployment -- and the man probably needs a guard dog. Meanwhile, I still want to know why police were at the house at 3:20 am - -that sounds way more interesting than them shooting the dog.
A neglected and nearly starved 'pit bull' is in for a happy ending as he was able to get into a rescue and was spared euthanasia.
A man in Canadais wandering across the country with nothing but a shopping cart and his dog. He's walking across the country to raise awareness of homelessness. While he's been well received in all of his stops across the country, there is some concern that his dog, a believed maybe to be a bullmastiff cross, could be confiscated when he reaches the Ontario border because the dog looks kind of vaguely like a 'pit bull'. The author of the story has a great blog posting here, and Caveat has her take here. This really is an interesting story, and anyone who reads it and says, man, this ordinance is a great idea, is just beyond reason.
I note from your articles much of what you advocate is the socialising of dogs and also not chaining an animal up,on these 2 points I agree 100%.What I do not follow is
how our highly educated intellectual Humans
does not realise these 2 points.Maybe a few
experiments on newborn human babies should be carried out i.e that is from birth they should be locked in a room,muzzled and chained,would they grow up as normal happy children and then become well adjusted
adults? I think not.
Posted by: selwyn marock | November 16, 2008 at 11:23 PM
B, check this out!
http://www.gazette.com/articles/melendez_43519___article.html/caesar_kids.html
Denver ACO Doug Kelly singing a different tune???
Posted by: EmilyS | November 17, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Wow, Emily, good find. Maybe they're getting paranoid about the upcoming lawsuit.
The article failed to mention that a kid was killed by a nordic breed the day the 'pit bull' ban was reinstated in Denver.
A few quibbles, of course, but not a bad column overall.
Posted by: Selma | November 17, 2008 at 07:53 AM
From my understanding, Mr. Kelly has never been a strong advocate of the ban....but this is certainly the most publically vocal against it I've seen. I really wish this article had run in the Denver Post instead of in Colorado Springs...but good nonetheless.
Aurora's ban goes to trial today....so keep your fingers crossed for that.
Posted by: Brent | November 17, 2008 at 08:20 AM
My fingers are crossed so tightly I can barely type! I had Aurora on my calendar.
Posted by: Selma | November 17, 2008 at 08:54 AM