Yesterday, voters in Miami-Dade County went to the polls to determine whether or not they would keep the county's 23 year old ban on pit bulls.
And overwhelmingly, voters voted to keep the ban with 63.2% voting to keep the ban, and 36.8% voting for a repeal.
The results are not terribly surprising.
For more than two decades, citizens in Miami have been told by their county government that pit bulls were inherently dangerous. They're, not, but that's what people have been told by way of the 23 year old law.
The ban has also prevented most in the city from adopting pit bulls, meaning there are fewer advocates in Miami than in other places, and, fewer opportunities for common citizens to meet pit bulls and thus realize they are not the deamons often portrayed by the media.
Meanwhile, early polling showed that this was a major up-hill battle for advocates, and several larger national animal welfare groups opted NOT to pay for advertising to help push the ballot initiative because they felt the money would be better spent on the next round of lobbying.
This left advocates in Miami about 3 months, and minimal cash on hand, to re-educate an entire population about pit bulls and ended up coming up way short.
It would be pretty easy to get down about the vote. It was a loss -- and a win would have sent huge waives across the nation and would have ended the breed ban in one of the most high profile areas left in this country.
However, the detailed voter count tells maybe a more optimistic story.
Based on the numbers, Miami had a fairly large voter turnout by August election standards -- with a full 20% of the 1.2 million voters casting votes. However, this is where it gets a bit interesting.
Of those 248,496 voters, only 42% cast their votes yesterday on voting day (only 8% of total registered voters). The remaing 58.6% cast them either during the early voting (14%) or absentee (34%).
The voting split was pretty remarkable.
Of those that voted absentee (and were thus were largely unaffected by late educational pushes and editorials touting the need to repeal the ban), only 31% voted to repeal the breed ban. I should also note that concerns over the absentee voting system has led to many allegations of voter fraud in these early ballots.
Of those who voted early (again, less impacted by the educational efforts), 36% voted to repeal the ban.
Of those who went to the polls, a full 41% voted to repeal the ban.
In other words, when people are provided educational information about the ordinance, about pit bulls and realize there is no professional support for breed bans, they become more likely to vote in favor of the dogs.
This is some positive news (and also not terribly surprising).
As we continue to educate people about the dogs, we'll continue to make progress in this regard. And people seem to be very open to the educational opportunity and it can, and does, impact public perception.
This is all why the support for breed bans is diminishing in favor of more effective, enforceable and common-sensical laws targeting dangerous dogs based on their behavior, not their looks.
So it's a tough loss -- but one that I think gives us a good measure of the work to be done. The groups in Miami plan to continue fighting through the traditional measures of working through the city council and the state legislature and hopefully more progress will be made in the not-too-distant future.
Nice!
Posted by: Donna | August 15, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Thanks Brent for putting this analysis together. A great take on the nights sad events.
Posted by: Fayclis | August 15, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Thanks for this breakdown, Brent. And a huge thank you goes out to everyone in Miami Dade who made an effort to educate as well as the voters who voted to repeal the ban!
Posted by: Jenn | August 15, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Good run down. Things went down hill at the last minute in MD - when I went to bed the news said the new initiative had passed. Missed you at the No Kill conference - 800 attendees! Fun.
Posted by: Dianne R | August 15, 2012 at 02:10 PM
In all fairness, I have to admit I've probably blindly voted in the past on issues without really understanding them, so, no, this is not surprising. Before I got my dogs, many of my friends were under the impression that pit bulls were dangerous, simply because of what they read in the newspaper. I truly believe that the tide is turning and we dog owners will continue to impact people's opinions. It's just a matter of time and with logical thinking hopefully our leaders will realize what keeps people safe and advance their efforts in that direction rather than BSL.
Posted by: Jen Brighton | August 15, 2012 at 03:46 PM
P.S. Brent, I see you are going to be the featured guest on PBLN Blog Talk Radio next Tuesday, Aug. 21. Woo hoo!
Posted by: Jen Brighton | August 15, 2012 at 03:50 PM
Yes. Honored to be part and I've been told I have a great look for radio.
Posted by: Brent | August 15, 2012 at 03:51 PM
I love a good sense of humor. Must be why we champion bully breed types. Because they are goofballs.
Posted by: Jen Brighton | August 15, 2012 at 05:10 PM
someone needs to research how many dog bites have occured in Miami and no ban has been placed on the biting breed. there are so many more dangerous breeds out there and no one has said anything about them. would be more afraid of a rotti or shepard than a pit. why can the pits be sold in Miami shops if they are banned?
Miami owners need to keep fighting this ridiculous law and you need to keep championing the truth.
Posted by: p. hofmann | August 16, 2012 at 11:20 AM
p -- a few years ago there was a report on the number of bites in Miami-Dade vs Broward County and Dade had more bites, and more bites per capita than Broward. That's the only info I've ever seen with dog bite info for Miami -- and it essentially shows that the law has not made the residents of Dade county safer at all.
I fortunately retyped out the data a few years ago as it is here (the old link is broken).
http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2008/03/miami-dade-coun.html
Posted by: Brent | August 16, 2012 at 11:26 AM
Thanks for posting this, Brent. I was disheartened to see the results, but I'm glad to know that the educational efforts were beginning to pay off.
Posted by: Kelsey/Team Unruly | August 23, 2012 at 02:40 PM