A rough week for advocates of breed bans

It's been a bit of a rough time for some of the folks across North America that have been pushing for breed bans.

Back in July, Sioux City's Aaron Rochester -- who was the primary advocate pushing for a ban on 'pit bulls' in the community -- ended up with his own dog, a labrador retriever named Jake, on death row for having attacking a passerby. The incident ended with Jake getting stolen from the city pound (a felony offense) and never heard from again.

In Whitehall, Ohio, councilwoman Jackie Thompson, who has tried not once but twice to pass a breed ban in the city, even though there is no other support for it on the council, is now facing a potential recall effort that would remove her from office. Among the reasons: Disruptive at meetings, harrassing city employees, embarrassing the city, using her position of power to get a critic fired from their private sector job, and an overall fear of the citizens to speak out at city council meetings for fear of retribution.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant -- the leader in passing the provence-wide breed ban there -- was arrested last week after killing a man on a bicycle using his automobile. In what is a really odd story, apparently Bryant and the bicyclist, Allan Sheppard, had a minor run in on the street, words ensued, and the event ended with Sheppard being drug behind the automobile and being run into various inanimate objects before he fell dead along the side of the road. I haven't had time to follow this case terribly closely, but Fred and Caveat have certainly been keeping a close eye on it - -and the apparent media spin cycle that is going on there in this incident.

Over and over it seems that a great many of the people who support bans on particular breeds of dogs are not the type of folks who look at all of the information, do good analyzing of the data and what works and what doesn't, and make judgments based on what will really improve public safety. They seem to be the type that would ban certain breeds of dogs, not wanting to place the blame on owners when they themselves are bad owners. They seem like the type that would use their power of political office to settle personal vendettas. And they seem like the type of people who might make an irrational decision that would lead to violence against another human being.

When people are willing to dismiss all expert opinion on the topic and ignore all scientific data and ignore policies that work in favor of those that have never proven to work, you really do need to question their motivations. And it appears that clearly, these folks are not beyond reproach.

Comments

[KiraDnote]

People shouldnt ban pit bulls its not the breed its the people who own them and raise them for fighting. I have to pitbulls myself and have been fine for the past two years, and yes when I was a kid i got attacked by a pitbull, and in my teen years i got attacked by a boxer my moms dashound bit me seven times in ten years we had him. so it goes to show that little dogs can be just as bad as bigger breeds depending on how you rasie them.

[Heather B]

Yes please have a look at whats happening to Mr Bryant here in Ontario, Canada . Its called Karma.
This is the man that said `` all pitbulls were ticking time bombs`` . It seems this guys temper ended up killing an innocent human being and he has now hired Navigator to make it all look peachy keen and rosy.
I personally hope they fry his ass in court. He is directly responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent dogs in Ontario.

[Social Mange]

Anyone who supports a breed ban is an irrational, unthinking moron.

Or a megalomaniac who thinks to climb to power on the backs of dead dogs and the rights of the dogs' owners.

That includes the members of the McGuinty Liberal government who voted in favour of the province's unjust, unfounded, vague, shoddy and fiscally irresponsible breed specific legislation.

[selwyn marock]

Bryant on his release on a charge that may or may not be in the Canadian lawbooks,probably
they will ban his car.
But he had no alcohol blood test and never
had to attend a bail hearing.The cops had about 10 witnesses that saw him attacking
the poor victim with his soon to be banned
breed of automobile,now the cops are out hunting for a 100 witnesses that did not see him.At the police station Bryant's 1st call was to a lawyer,2nd call to a PR co.
Navigator to protect his "good name" and to
demonise the victim's.His next move will
probably be again to buy the judiciary which
I beleive are already in his pocket,by the end of the story it will appear that the
dead victim attacked Bryant with an AK 47
and a couple of hand-grenades
Justice will not be served.
smarock10@yahoo.com