It's been overall a pretty good week for dogs. Sioux City may be looking at repealing their BSL. Toledo may have to following a court ruling. Dare I say that common sense and decency may be winning?
Let's take a look at the rest of the week's top stories.
City and State Laws
The city of Elkhart, IN voted against adding breed specific regulations to their new dangerous dog ordinance. They are still working through the final draft, and it was an extremely close vote, so if you live in or near Elkhart, be sure you make your voice heard that the best law will target dogs based on their behavior, not breed.
A new bill in Annapolis, MD would require dogs that are deemed dangerous (based on behavior) by local authorities would be required to spay/neuter their dog. While I don't have a major problem with the ordinance, per se, it is hard for me to get past the reasoning they give or the proposed ordinance which is to increase public safety. I've always felt that spewtering because it "decreases aggressiveness" was a poor argument because it ignores all of the other factors involved in aggression (like, the likelihood that completely neglegent dog owers are probably less likely to alter their pets).
Gardendale, AL passed a ban on 'pit bulls' after being urged to do so by a resident who's dog was killed by two at-large 'pit bulls'.
Denmark, apparently unaware that their neighborThe Netherlands repealed their BSL due to its ineffectiveness, or that the UK, continues to be a disaster, has decided to look at the possibility of banning 'pit bulls' in their country. Look around guys, look around.
New Hampshire this week voted to make Greyhound Racing Illegal. Greyhound racing has often been criticized by animal advocates because of the excessive breeding and casting away of dogs that usually comes with it. There are currently now only about 26 dog tracks left in the US -- 13 of them are in the state of Florida.
Memphis, TN is looking at a new law that would require all 'pit bulls' to be spayed or neutered. Memphis is ignoring the negative results of similar legislation in nearbyLittle Rock and in Kansas City -- and apparently ignoring that their shelter has enough problems without this law - like the random starving and killing of dogs in their shelter. More from Stop BSL.
The UK Dangerous Dogs Act -- still failing
Yet another plea by the public to repeal the UK Dangerous Dogs Act -- which bans four breeds of dogs and preceeded a 60% increase in major dog bites over the past decade in the UK.
A pensioner was fined 250 pounds and banned from owning dogs for the next two years because his Rottweiler attacked a woman.
A postal worker needed plastic surgery after being attacked by a German Shepherd while doing her route.
Dog Bites and Attacks
Most dogs aren't aggressive -- regardless of breed. But bites occur from all types of dogs and it is important that we realize this and focus on the causes of dog bites vs thinking that breed has anything to do with it.
A five year old New Zealand girl was airlifted to the hospital after being attacked by a dog of an unspecified breed. The dog later went on and attacked a Labrador Retriever. The attack was the second in the community this week after a Bull Mastiff had attacked two men earlier this week. New Zealand has nationwide BSL.
A five year old boy in Montgomery County, TX was airlifted to the hospital yesterday after being attacked by four Great Danes that were apparently running at large and attacked the boy while he road on his bicycle. This comes at a time when some in the state are pushing to repeal the state's prohibition on breed specific regulations -- which is ill-advised as aggressive dogs can come in all shapes and sizes and regulations should be targeted toward the behavior of the individual dog. The breed of dog does not get mentioned in this article until the 2nd paragraph.
A young Australian boy was bitten by a family's new dog that they had had at home for less than an hour. The boy was playing with the dog with toys and the dog reached for one of the toys, missed, and caught the boy on the face. The dog is now dead because one family was ignorant about how to handle proper introductions between a dog and a family and how younger children need to learn how to interact with dogs. For the Pits has a good commentary on this one.
A Youngstown, OH man was jailed after his Rottweiler was not confined and attacked a 10 year old boy. Youngstown has breed specific regulations targeting 'pit bulls'.
A Rock Springs, WI UPS driver lost the tip of his finger when he was bitten by a Rhodesian Ridgeback when the dog pulled away from its owner. Again the dog's breed wasn't mentioned until the 2nd paragraph.
A five year old Mansfield, MA boy was bitten in the face by the family's Husky-type dog. The breed of dog was mentioned in the 2nd to last paragraph of the story.
Police in Erie, PA shot a 'pit bull' that bit a 13 year old girl causing minor injuries. The breed of dog was listed in the headline and the lead of the story, and the dog was shot and killed. Does anyone really think the media doesn't report bites by 'pit bulls' differently?
Abuse Cases
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, animal control officers found a 'pit bull' with 15 lbs of barbells chained to its neck - clearly a case of abuse.
Miscellaneous News
The Kansas City Parks Board officially killed the idea of a proposed dog park at Sunnyside Park. The good news is that it looks like they may push for some dog parks in other parts of the city -- which the city badly needs. However, they were very limiting in where they are going to allow them to go, which is a huge disappointment.
A good feature story on an Austin couple who is working to make their area No Kill.
A good article about the "Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act" in Missouri -- I think Kimberly did a great job here of providing multiple sides of the issue and providing links to different sources of information on both sides of the topic.
Blog Postings
Feral Cats and Wildlifte: Ur doin it wrong -- a great post by Christie Keith at the Pet Connection on the misguided argument for kiling feral cats.
It would be worthless for me to write a post on this topic because For the Pits summed up my opinion on this perfectly -- but Animal Planet is running an "investigative piece" on dogfighting next week. HSUS "dogfighting experts" are going to be interviewed for the show -- which means the show promises to have gratuitous and graffic footage involved. At this point, I just wish HSUS and John Goodwin wold crawl into a hole and never come back out on this topic as their exposes seem to do little more than reinforce stereotypes about particular types of dogs, and glamorize dogfighting to a segment of the population that would see a "thrill" in this dispicable activity.
Many of you in the 'pit bull' community are familiar with the awesome children's book Demo: The Story of a Junkyard Dog. The real life Demo died recently and his owner, and the book's author, and Demo's owner, Jon Bozak has a great article written with soul about a man's love for a dog that had had a tough life, and touched him in a way that inspired a book. Godspeed Demo.
Hi, Brent -- thanks as always for the great roundups!
Re the New Zealand attack: I think the Lab mentioned at the end of the article was actually the victim of a bullmastiff in an unrelated incident.
Posted by: Luisa | January 24, 2010 at 02:12 PM
Thanks Luisa -- I made an adjustment to that one so it is now correct.
Posted by: Brent | January 24, 2010 at 05:09 PM