Wichita's new dog ordinance -- which requires all owners of 'pit bulls' to license, sterilize and microchip their dogs - has already created some problems in the city. The new ordinance, which has increased the number of dogs licensed in the city, along with some budget cuts in the finance department that handles licensing, has caused the city to fall two months behind on their processing of licensing. Without the proper information in their database, they do not have the licensing information on dogs and they don't know if a dog that bit someone has been properly vaccinated.
While none of this is a huge deal, per se, I think it helps highlight what many people don't realize when they enact breed specific policies is that it is extremely time consuming to execute -- which takes resources away from other areas of animal control -- like dealing with behaviorally dangerous animals or cruelty/neglect cases.
This will be extremely relevant when I talk about a case study in the coming weeks.
If I remember correctly, no one wanted this but the city kept pushing BSL year after year. I'm sure its the same reason KCMO did - so they can target the black yoots.
Posted by: MichelleD | January 12, 2010 at 04:04 PM