Oak Harbor, WA Repeals Breed Specific Oridinance

In a 6-0 unanimous vote, the city of Oak Harbor, WA voted to repeal their breed-specific ordinance. The city's ordinance, originally passed in 2006, required all 'pit bulls' to be held in a secure pen, be muzzled while on leash, and other restrictions. The vote held last week repeals all breed specific language and is now focused on targeting dogs based on their behavior, not breed.  Commissioners hope that the change will decrease the number of these types of dogs that are killed at the shelter.

In August, when the issue first came up for a repeal, the difficulty of enforcement became a major topic of the conversation:

"From an animal control officer's point of view, this is a really difficult issue" said Police Chief Rick Wallace.

The Burden would be on the city to prove any delinquent dog's breed, and that may mean Oak Harbor would have to foot the bill for a doggie DNA test.

From an enforcement point of view, it's almost impossible, Wallace said.

"I don't want this to turn into an emotional thing " City Administrator Paul Schmidt said "We're looking at it strictly as a fact-based issue."

And the fact is, breed determination can be tricky and costly business.

"Our own insurance doesn't recommend BSL," said Schmidt. "We support the behavior based approach."

When you take emotion out of the equation, and base your decision solely based on facts, breed neutral legislation -- that targets aggressive dogs based on behavior, not the way they look - becomes the only logical conclusion. More and more cities like Oak Harbor are realizing this, and bypassing BSL for more effective and enforcable laws, and repealing the ordinances that are already in place.  Meanwhile, some who hold onto archaic ideals are being forced out of their positions.

Nice work by the fact-focused administrators in Oak Harbor.

Hat Tip: Stop BSL.

Comments

[Jennifer Brighton]

Woo hoo! I live in Bellingham and have a pit mix who comforts my husband's clients with disabilities, attends agility classes, the dog park and dog daycare twice a week. The idea that I couldn't visit relatives in Oak Harbor w/out muzzling her was ludicrous.

Love this website. I follow breed ban legislation closely and in fact was finally a true victim of prejudice yesterday when a woman asked me if my dog was part pit bull and when I said "Yes, do you want to meet her?," she gave me a dirty look and commented that she had a gun. All while I was walking in a legal off-leash area along the river with my 81-yr-old mother! Some people have no shame.

[JR]

Police Chief Rick Wallace should know that a Doggie DNA Test is irrelevant- there is not a DNA test available anywhere that will prove the breed of the dog and the laboratories will tell you that.

[Brent Toellner]

I think most people now at least someone think the Mars Wisdom Panel test is at least somewhat conclusive. The problems with so many of the other tests is that they did not have enough breeds in their database and thus, were coming back with wacky results. The Mars test appears, at least for now, to be somewhat accurate...and even if it's not, it creates quite the problem for cities if DNA can't determine a breed of dog, but they think they can tell just by looking at it...particularly for mixed breed dogs.