Springfield, MO looks to possibly re-address breed-specific law

Last week, news hit that several members of the Springfield City Council are taking a look at some animal control policies -- including the city's current breed-specific law - and a potential new shelter for the community.

In 2006, Springfield passed a law that requires all 'pit bulls' to be micro-chipped, muzzled, spayed/neutered and a host of other restrictions.

Two groups got together -- the Plans and Policies committe and the Community Involvement Committee -- to discuss various animal-related issues in the city; but eventually all talk seemed to center around the city's pit bull ordinance and the city animal shelter.

Councilman Doug Burlison, who two years ago tried to repeal the 'pit bull' ordinance -- calling it unenforceable - is the chair of the Plans and Policies Committee. Former Councilwoman Mary Collette, who was on the council when the law passed and has been a vocal opponent of the ordinance, is also providing input. Collette thinks the city should replace the breed-specific ordinance with a vicious animal ordinance that would cover all dangerous animals -- not just pit bulls.

Director of the Springfield - Greene County Health Department Kevin Gipson (who's department is responsible for enforcing the codes) notes that he never liked the breed-specific ordinance -- but says it has done good in the city.

So with that in mind, I thought I'd take a look at the actual numbers in the city to see how things are working (and thanks to the folks at the Greene County Health Department for being so easy to work with on getting the numbers).

The first year I have data for is 2005 -- which is the most recent "clean" year. The pit bull ordinance was passed in 2006.  The 2010 numbers are through September only (I've put the 'projected' number in parenthesis just for comparison purposes if the same pace holds up over the last 3 months of the year).

Dogs Impounded      Total Dogs            Pits & Mixes

2005                                            2289                                    502

2006                                            2079                                    362

2007                                            2366                                    252

2008                                            2863                                    204

2009                                            2660                                    214

2010                                            1740 (2320)                     123 (164)

So according to their statistics, impounds are generally trending upward for all dogs (with a slight downturn in 2010) while the number 'pit bulls' impounded has been on the decline. This could be because people have opted to get different breeds of dogs because of all of the restrictions, or moved out of town, or because of how they're identifying mixes -- or some combination of all of those things.  But more animals are being impounded than before the ordinance.

Dog Bites                    Total Dogs                    Pits & Mixes

2005                                        102                                                    34

2006                                        98                                                       26

2007                                        87                                                       23

2008                                        89                                                       15

2009                                        103                                                    15

2010                                         83 (111)                                           7 (9)

So there was an initial decrease in total dog bites in the community, numbers have begun to go back up again over the past couple of years. The number of bites by 'pit bulls' has continued to decrease....which means that bites by other breeds are going up as irresponsible/problem owners likely switched to other types of dogs that they owned. 

The shelter has been doing an improved job of getting dogs and cats into rescue. The shelter itself doesn't do adoptions (they claim they don't have the capacity or space to do so) but they have been more active in working with rescue groups to get the animals out of the shelter -- improving rescue rates from 45% to 71% for dogs from 2005 to 2009 and from 20% to 41% for cats over the same time period.

Note that virtually all 'pit bulls' are still killed at the shelter as the shelter has a policy against transfering 'pit bulls' to rescues and the council voted 2 years ago against a proposal to force a shelter policy change.

The Health Department officials and the council seem to realize that the city is getting a lot of criticism for their 'pit bull' ordinance, along with their policy of no adoptions from the shelter. It is excellent that several members of the council seem to be looking at improving this in the city -- which would require more funding for animal control and likely money for a new shelter. They are looking at needing $5 million for a new shelter -- some of which they'd like to get from private donations.  One option might be to ask Bob Barker for some help -- Barker is vocal supporter of the animal rights movement, and graduated from Drury College in Springfield - and gave $1 million to start a foundation to build an animal rights curriculum at Drury. 

If you live in or around the Springfield area, please write or talk to your city council member and let them know that changing their pit bull policies are important for the city. 

 

Comments

[kmk]

Great post, Brent. But don't hold your breath waiting on money from Bob Barker. These AR programs are designed to TAKE animals from people, not save them. As a friend of mine who is an attorney is fond of saying, "There's a whole bunch of people in law school right now learing how to take your dogs away from you".

Like many cities, Springfield had a gang/crime/drug problem and thought they could help solve it by passing restrictions on pit bulls. At the time NO ONE was in favor of the ordinance, other than a few council members.

If you want to solve your gang/crime/drug problem you have to...wait for it... address the gangs, the crime, and the drugs.

Banning pit bulls doesn't make the gang problems go away.

Forcing middle-aged white women with allergies to get a prescription to buy Sudafed isn't going to make the meth problem go away. (Hint to law enforcement - track solvent sales. Anyone that buys mass quantities of ethyl ether is either trying to blow themselves up, or they're making meth. Or both).

Does human nature dictate that we try to solve every problem by passing more restrictions on law abiding citizens? When terrorists hijacked planes and flew into the Pentagon and the WTC we started taking knitting needles and tweezers away from 90 year old grandmas boarding planes. I remember flying back from the UK with a hangnail and not being able to clip it off. Drove me nuts!

I hope Springfield drops the stupid ordinance. That will be a big victory, since the five largest cities in Missouri currently have some sort of BSL or MSN. I think Springfield is #3.

[krista]

I hope they do to, I have two inside city limits and am facing crimial charges because they were not registered. They didnt bite anyone or nothing. They got out because my daughter opened the door at 3 am. Well that problem is fixed and even animal control and the police that were called said we had the most well behaved pits they have seen. I have never had a problem with them and I have a two year old and DFS, Headstart, parents as teachers, parenting life skills have all been over (not a problem and they all have played with them). We have walked our dogs and police have stopped us and said what pretty dogs we had. This is inside Springfield's City Limits. Never had a problem. The people at our vet loves when our dogs come in because no one takes their dogs to the vet scared they will be taken away. I am going to college to stop the use of vicious dog, because not all dogs of one breed is vicious. and to be a probation officer. If they act vicious then make the dog a vicious dog not the breed. Thank you for this information because I can now help try to fix the problems that are associated with the breed.

We don't have gang problems here, we have teenage kids acting like fools because we are a middle to high class community that doesn't want to change and except others. We are very Conservative and it took the town until this year to realize their are homeless teens in this town when the problem started well over 10 years ago. Now Meth is a huge problem and I have no opinions on how to stop it other than what they are doing. I do think it is outrageous and I don't want to have to have a prescription to get sudaffed but if it stops the Meth problem than so be it.