Is BSL falling out of favor?

Folks, it appears people are starting to listen, and notice.

Yesterday, the state of Montana briefly listened to testimony about a bill that would have banned all pit bulls from the State of Montana. After hearing about an hour of testimony from some of the over 100 people who attended that were all apparently against the measure, the House Local Government committee quickly rejected the measure.

Meanwhile, in Oshkosh, WI, city health director Paul Spiegel asked that his measure that would put major restrictions on 'pit bulls' in the city be pulled. He sent his proposal out to various citizens and canine organizations throughout the city and the response was overwhelmingly opposed to his measure. Even the idea of mandating spaying/neutering of dogs in the city is off the table. After initially proposing the MSN ordinance, Joni Geiger of the Oshkosh Area Humane Society backed off her support of the ordinance.

"The more research we did it just seems as though it really doesn't work." She said that many people chose not to alter their dogs because they couldn't afford to.  "Plus, making it mandatory and then trying to enforce it would be even harder.  Making them do it is not actually going to make them do it."

Meanwhile, from Jodi Pries at Bless The Bullies, it appears that Molalla, OR has also chosen to go with a breed-neutral dangerous dog ordinance that would protect citizens from aggressive dogs, regardless of breed.

These cities have followed other cities like Lancaster, MA, Manchester, MI, Sumner, WA, Puyallup, WA, West Liberty, IA, and West Allis, WI as cities that have discussed breed specific language in the past month, but have opted for breed-neutral ordinances.

City administrators are starting to listen. And why shouldn't they?

The reality is that every single organization of experts on canines in this country OPPOSES breed specific legislation.  Meanwhile, even with 20 years of BSL legislation that has existed, there has yet to be one case study that has shown it to be effective at minimizing the number of dog bites and attacks in the community.  And there have been countless cases where the legislation has proven to be a complete failure.

I believe folks are starting to get it. They're starting to listen. Yay.

Comments

[Selma]

I sure hope so. Things have been going well lately.

Looking forward to the day when the question mark won't be necessary.