Quite a few things to get through today so I'm going to dive right in.
Cities/States and Laws
A committee in Toledo that is working on changing the city's dog law has been undergoing some tweaks and changes -- and the ordinance seems likely at this point that it will be focused on a dog's behavior, not it's breed. The ordinance would be a major change to the city's current breed-specific legislation - that was struck down as unconstitutional in a recent lawsuit. Afinal draft of the ordinance is expected to be at the mayor's office in two weeks.
Also in Toledo, new Lucas County Dog Warden Julie Lyle has announced plans that they will begin going door to door doing licensing inspections. Not only do I question the Constitutionality of this activity, but I also question whether it's the best use of resources...
Hollister, CA is considering a new law in the community that would require all 'pit bulls' and Chihuahuas to be spayed or neutered. It was estimated that in 2009, those two breeds accounted for 41% of intake services. In virtually every case where this has been tried, mandatory spay/neuter ordinances have shown to increase the number of dogs of the targeted breeds that are impounded and killed. Hopefuly the folks in Hollister will research this and get this right and not pass the MSN ordinance.
Clarksdale, MS amends its ordinance that puts harsh restrictions on owners of 'pit bulls' and now the ordinance includes Rottweilers. The law was originally going to include German Shepherds too -- but then it would have included the city's police dog in the ordinance.
Garfield, NJ city councilmen unanimously voted against a breed-specific proposal in their community. The council said they heard from a huge number of dog owners, trainers, vets, etc in the community and realized their proposal was not only against New Jersey state law, but not the right way to go. "I'm looking at the pit bull breed in a little bit of a different light" said Mary Frank Calandriello. Congrats to the citizens and the leaders in Garfield for getting it right.
A report in Boston notes that most of the people in the community that are ticketed for not registering their 'pit bulls' and muzzling them in compliance with the city's 2004 law are just surrendering their dogs and not paying fines. The city is owed $140,000 in upaid fines at this point and over 1,000 dogs were surrendered from homes to animal control. And there is some speculation that the law isn't enforced equitably.
No plans to ban 'pit bulls' in Mitchell, SD.
Barnhill, OH passes BSL. The city council there claims they were not doing really what they wanted to do but only what the majority of the residents wanted. I've mentioned this before, it is more and more important that city council people do what's right, and what's best, and what protects the minority FROM the majority than jut pander to the majority to get votes (even though I still disagree that the majority of people want BSL -- I've never seen a city council meeting where the majority of people there are there because they want BSL.
Pointe Coupee, LA has come back with a new proposal that would place restrictions on owners of 10 breeds of dogs in the Parish: German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, Boxers, Akitas, Chow Chows, American Staffordshire Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and Bull Terriers.
Dog bites and attacks
A Texas girl was bitten multiple times by a dog that is being described as an Akita.
In the UK (where they have a ban on four different breeds of dogs), a dog warden was attacked by an German Shepherd/Akita cross and received 30 stitches in the attack. Neither breed in the mix is banned under the current ordinance.
A 12 year old UK girl was bitten in the face by a Rottweiler -- again, another dog not banned in the UK. Breed bans don't work -- because there is always another type of dog that can cause injury if owners are irresponsible.
A three year old Lynchburg, VA boy was bitten by a mixed-breed neighborhood dog. The boy was out playing in the back yard by himself when the dog attacked and both the boy's mother and the babysitter were inside.
An 8 year old Corsicana, TX boy was attacked by two 'pit bull mix" dogs. Several neighborhood children were playing with a football and the ball went into the neighbor's back yard. The boy went into the fenced in back yard which contained the two dogs.
A 6 year old Norwalk, OH girl was bitten by a neighbor's "Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd/Husky mix". The dog apparently bit someone back in February.
A three year old Alberta, CA girl was bitten in the face by a Rottweiler. According to the report, the girl fell on the dog and the dog bit at her and caught her in the face. While it would be great for dogs to be trained well enough to not bite in these instances, it is important that children of this age learn to respect dogs and not do things like fall on them which can hurt a dog and cause them to lash out.
A 13 year old Port Richmond, PA boy was attacked by an American Bulldog. The dog was the neighbor's dog, but the boy had met the dog hundreds of times -- it's just a really odd attack.
A quick snap by a Husky that killed a toy poodle has people wondering if the Coconut Creek, FL ordinance should be changed to prevent the Husky from being automatically euthanized.
A Shih Tzu in Sioux City, IA has been deemed vicious after biting someone for the 2nd time. The Sioux City law continues to be probematic for the city.
Dogs of all shapes and sizes bite. This is one of the reasons breed specific policies fail. While 99% of dogs never cause a problem, focusing policies on irresponsible pet owners and on dogs that show aggressive behavior is the best way to solve the dog bite problem.
Media Reports
This is a bizarre "breed ID is not easy" article. The article highlights two men wo are being called heroes after saving a four year old girl who was being attacked by a dog. The two men said the dog looked like a "St. Bernard-looking dog" -- but then the newspaper corrects them and says that the dog was really a 'pit bull'. Which is interesting because St. Bernards and pit bulls look nothing alike (and pit bulls are about 1/3 the size). The dog in the video really looks like neither of the two breeds...
In this story,a police deputy shot two 'pit bulls' that were chasing an 8 year old boy. I always think these stories are suspicious because dogs are significantly faster than humans -- particularly 8 year olds - -and if these two dogs were chasing the young boy with the intention on really catching him, they probably would have. Dogs like to chase things for play -- yet as a society,we've become so over-reactive to the "danger" of dogs (even though most are not at all dangerous) that we view play activity like chasing to be aggression. Meanwhile, the officer said the dogs ran up to him when he stepped out of the car -- again, a pretty typical dog behavior. Most dogs will run up to a person they see because they're social creatures. I just can't help but think that all of this activity would have been viewed completely differently if a Golden Retriever had been involved. No one was injured and two dogs were killed in the incident.
Positive Press
Pit Bulls in Lakeland, FL earn love and show affection.
Miscelllaneous
The 'pit bull' that was accused of biting pop star Vanessa Carlton has been given a new leash on life. While Bella will no longer be able to stay with her owners, some people in the community stepped up and evaluated Bella and noted that the bite was not a major attack and that the dog was not aggressive -- so Bella will get the opportunity to go to a new owner.
Rainy Day Books in Kansas City will be selling pre-copies of the book A Dog's Purpose -- 10% of the proceeds for all book sales between now and July 6 will be divided among two area rescue organizations Animal Haven and Wayside Waifs.
Bused cases
Blog Entries
More from Humanewatch.org on HSUS and its purposeful attempts to confuse the public about representing local humane societies -- this time with a specific example from Nevada.
It's the "can do" within us that will save lives - Winograd discussing learnings from his trip to New Zealand.
HSUS has an "investigative report" on Center for Consumer Freedom director Richard Berman. It's worth reading -- you should know who it is that is behind the CCF and Humane Watch. That said I still find HSUS's responses Humane Watch's allogations (which I usually fact check and is usually spot on) is to last back at CCF. I'm growing tired of their "I'm rubber and you're glue" response and instead of a) denying allogations or b) fixing the problems if they're true (which they seem to be) they just try to discredit the people that are pointing them out as being frauds.
Building No Kill Communities lights the way for change in Georgia.
A great article form the Ottawa Citizen about the Ontario breed ban - noting that broad-stroke law enforcement tools based on rigid generalities don't reduce crime.
The HSUS / Nevada HS story was so disturbing when I read it earlier this week. It was bad enough to know that HSUS was allowing confusion to continue by omission or lack of clarification on their part, but to have them trying to strong-arm others into not clarifying either is just wrong. The wording that they wanted removed didn't even mention HSUS and so was in no way directly harmful to them. Grr!
I appreciate the link to the CCF expose piece too. Both HSUS and CCF/HumaneWatch are too big to get any $$$ from me -- too many different agendas -- some good, some not so good (IMO).
Any chance of getting a link on the newstory with the St. Bernard? Just curious to see the actual dog :o)
Posted by: Lori | May 16, 2010 at 02:40 PM
Hmpf. I forgot the link.
Here it is: http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=142183&catid=57
I've also updated the original post to include it.
Posted by: Brent | May 16, 2010 at 02:48 PM
Both HSUS and HW are big lobbying factions with agenda's and missions - the biggest difference to me is that HW is not SOLICITING money from the general public on the backs of abused animals to fund their lobbying efforts. The HSUS however, IMHO is being very fraudulent in their pleas for donations running on TV and in the print media. The HSUS does some good works, but has the ability to do so much more. Until they use the money that is sent in to them to actually help animal shelters and rescue groups - they will not receive another dime from me
Posted by: DRosser | May 17, 2010 at 08:13 AM
Brent, thank you, again, for your reasonable and unbiased report. It is truly frustrating to ask a serious question of HSUS and NEVER get a straight answer. You have always done a good job of connecting the dots on animal issues without proselytizing or pandering to emotional blackmail. HSUS continues with playground tactics of name calling and whining - come on, we are adults. We can handle the truth.
It's a tough fight, going against HSUS, not for the faint of heart. Just think of the dollars in donations that HSUS stands to lose as more and more people become aware of the ways their donations are used - not to mention the scandal and controversy or the hidden anti-human/anti-animal goals of HSUS. More close inspection is welcome. No matter how I look into the words and actions of HSUS I keep coming up with a dead end of double standards and circular, fruitless arguments. It can make me crazy - as I have learned by fighting bad legislation in my state, written and inspired by HSUS. They even managed to pull the wool over the eyes of my state's Dept. on Natural Resources secretary this month, starting another firestorm of protest from voters, particularly sportsmen and women and dog people. http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/93646084.html?a=a&sort=last%20to%20first&refresh=6309#comments&refresh=6010#comments&refresh=6479#comments&refresh=7854#comments
Posted by: Dogteacher | May 17, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Seriously Julie Lyle - WTF!? Toledo has been stalked by little more than a serial killer the past 20 years and THIS is the 2nd thing you do to try to mend that broken relationship? Nice to see you're trying to end breed descrimination so you can harass everyone equally.
Did NACA send out a newsletter lately on ways to abuse their power?
Posted by: MichelleD | May 17, 2010 at 05:20 PM