If you've ever needed evidence that Breed Bans are illogical and ineffective, here's more.
Apparently, the city of Mission Hills, KS is now looking at adding Rottweillers to its list of banned breeds (joining 'pit bulls' on the list). The city is considering adding Rottweilers to the list after a person was bitten by a dog in the city limits. Now, the biting dog wasn't even a Rottweiler, but that is the breed being chosen to be banned because, according to councilman Roy Farchmin, they are "generally considered the second most dangerous dog breed.".
Um, ok. But if somoene could please highlight for me how a Rottweiler ban would have stopped a different type of dog from biting it'd be much appreciated.
The law itself will of course have a few legal hurdles to overcome -- primarily because there is only one Rottweiler registered in the small city of 3500 people - -and, well, making a law targeting one person is pretty illegal. This may be of additonal concern for the city given that the likelyhood that the Rottweiler owner is either a lawyer, or lives next door to one, is pretty high.
For those not familiar with Mission Hills -- it's a pretty elite community. By pretty elite, I mean, completely elite -- as in, of their 3500 residents, the average American actually has probably heard of several of them. Residents include PGA Golfers Matt Gogel and Tom Watson, Don Hall -- who is the Billionaire chairman of Hallmark Cards, Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett and the best sports broadcaster on the planet Kevin Harlan.
The average Household Income for the city is about $200,000 -- which means the average person who lives here is in the top 4% in income in the country. I would suspect that that average is brough WAY down by the number of retired people who live there.
So, suffice it to say, there really isn't a free-roaming dog problem, or a Rottweiler problem, or a pit bull problem in Mission Hills. A dog bit someone, and their solution is to try to ban someone else's dog from the city.
Not that we ever suspected that breed bans were based on any type of logic -- but if you want more evidence, here it is. Here's to hoping wiser heads prevail. Maybe they'll even realize that the current breed ban is equally ridiculous.
One of my dog training club members is a pet sitter - she primarily works in south Kansas City and eastern Johnson County, KS suburbs. She said the only time they see a Rottie in Mission Hills is when her dogs are there with her while she's walking client pets.
Your comment about the one Rottie in Mission Hills (alleged to be a Rottweiler mix) is funny. I thought the same thing - with any kind of luck the owner is a lawyer.
Mission Hills has the highest per capita income of any city in the Kansas City metro area.
Posted by: kmk | October 13, 2011 at 01:28 PM
One would hope the local citizenry is bright enough to realize that BSL is Bulls**t.
Posted by: Selma | October 14, 2011 at 09:55 AM
Funny stuff...wouldn't it be easier to just put an APB out for the lone rottie in town? I hear he lives at the corner of 3rd and Maple...often plays in the yard between 2 and 4 PM.
Posted by: Joel | October 14, 2011 at 12:09 PM
LOL. No kidding Joel. And his name is Sparky and his owners are Joe and Mary Lou. It really would be funny if it wasn't real. Of course they'll make the exception for Joe and Mary Lou because, well, we know them, and don't want to take their dog (or be sued). And their dog is nice (acknowledging that not all Rottweilers are aggressive). But we'll put the ban on FUTURE Rottweilers, that might be aggressive, because they're owned by "those types of owners" who could never afford to live in this neighborhood in their wildest dreams because every house in the neighborhood sells for $1 million+.
Posted by: Brent | October 14, 2011 at 12:48 PM
Looks like "Stupid" runs the entire socioeconomic spectrum. Good to know :)
Posted by: Toocutedobs | October 15, 2011 at 06:57 AM
The cities of eastern Johnson County, Kansas were on the cutting edge when it came to passing BSL, thanks to Mike Santos. I'm going on memory here but in 1984 Santos was still a law student and part-time city attorney for the city of Shawnee, KS when he convinced them to pass a "pit bull ban". There was a doctor that lived in Shawnee who had Bull Terriers and I'm thinking he also had a Hispanic surname. He convinced Santos that Bull Terriers weren't "pit bulls", which is why the Bull Terrier is listed on very few BSL ordinances in the Kansas City, Missouri metro area.
After Santos graduated from law school he got a full time job with...Overland Park, KS. I believe he thought BSL was going to be his ticket to fame and he convinced Overland Park and other cities they should pass BSL. Many of those small, picturesque cities on the Kansas side fell like dominos as a result - Mission Hills, Mission Woods, Fairway, Roeland Park, and Prairie Village. Leawood passed BSL more recently because a resident had a house guest with two pit bulls so the city decided they needed to be "pro-active".
As my dad always says, "More money than sense". On the opposite end of that spectrum you see cities like Kansas City, Kansas; Springfield, Missouri; and Grandview, Missouri thinking they could pass BSL and it would solve their crime, drug, and gang problems.
It's odd - wealthy cities pass BSL to keep "those people" out, while less wealthy cities pass BSL thinking "those people" will leave and take their problems with them. I should write a book, "Using Dogs for Social Engineering Purposes".
Posted by: kmk | October 17, 2011 at 07:44 AM
Oh, I almost forgot Westwood and Westwood Hills when I was listing the Johnson County, KS cities with BSL. But they're both about one city block square long so I can see why I forgot them.
I bought tickets a few years ago to go on a kitchen remodeling tour. Several of the homes were in Westwood, Westwood Hills, and Mission Hills - understandable as those are older homes. I really got my exercise that day because most of the houses in the neighborhoods had signs on the lawns prohibiting you from parking in front of their homes, "by order of the local police and local ordinance XYZ", etc.
So, I had to park a long way away from the homes. I didn't make it to all of the houses since I burned up so much time walking instead of looking at kitchens.
I never bought tickets for that tour again.
Posted by: kmk | October 18, 2011 at 03:01 PM