With the holidays, I've fallen pretty far behind on weekly roundups. So today, I'm just going to hit the most pertinent/interesting stories of the past few weeks. As always, feel free to post additional links in the comments section. Let's round 'em up.
Cities/States and Laws
In 2011, Terrell County, GA passed a law that required a specific $100,000 insurance policy, pin-size requirements, microchipping and pictures registered at the city office for all 'pit bulls' in the community. Following the breed-specific legislation, the shelter is overwhelmed by the number of pit bulls that have made their way in the shelter. This is consistent with what happens when communities pass breed-specific laws everywhere.
The RSPCA in South Whales notes that "MOST" people there support repealing their breed-specific ordinance in favor of a breed-neutral dangerous dog law.
Pratt, KS continues to live about 3 decades behind the rest of the world (go figure) and recently made their decision to keep their law banning 'pit bulls'. Their logic is pretty interesting as the mayor noted that he had experieince with Wolf Hybrids so pit bulls should be banned. The other noted his experience with Australian Shepherd, and thus, breed traits matter. None of them, mind you, actually had experience with pit bulls, but are banning them anyway.
Officials in Boston, MA are going to spend a boat-load of taxpayer funds to challenge the Massachussetts state law that prohibits their breed-specific legislation.
Manly, IA upheld their ban on 'pit bulls'. The law was passed in 2008 when two children were "threatened" by a pit bull.
Dog bites/attacks
A Miami-Dade woman was airlifted to the hospital after getting the worst of it after breaking up a fight between her two dogs. The dogs were listed an American Bulldog and a Labrador Retriever. Miami-Dade has had one of the longest-lasting breed bans in the United States but it only serves as a way of misinforming people of the real causes of significant dog bites.
Positive Pit Bull Press
Some positive bully press from Fox4 News in Kansas City as the shelter looks to rehome pit bulls that have ended up there.
Ken Foster's Book, I'm a Good Dog, was named by Vanity Fair as one of the best books of the year.
Miscellaneous
An interesting infographic from The Week with data about the number of pets in America.
Cats create art for local animal shelter.
No Kill News
Cleveland, TN has achieved significant No Kill success -- in much faster time than they expected. Within a year they moved from a kill rate of 75% to one that is just 6%, and achieved their goal 4 years ahead of schedule.
Blogs
The media has a responsibility to the public, when are they going to own up to it? - Bless the Bullies asks the pertinent question following the second dog attack involving a young child in the same home.
Dear AKC: You don't love dogs and you know it - -Ryan Clinton calls out the AKC. While I don't necessarily agree with all of Ryan's sentiments, I do think money and love of purebreds has often come at the expense of animal health and shelter animals for the AKC.
The overpopulation of excuses -- excuses seem to be plentiful when it comes to taking the steps to avoid going No Kill in many shelters.
BSL is contagious. Speak up now. -- Animal Farm Foundation notes that when one city talks about BSL, it often spreads to other communities nearby.
No Kill LA saved more than 3500 more animal lives in the Los Angeles area in 2012 -- and had an 84% save rate in December. With a competent/new executive director, I expect that we'll see more progress from them in 2013. Slightly more from the LA Times.
If you can't own it, maybe you shouldn't be doing it -- A good piece from YesBiscuit! about things that a shelter shouldn't do if they don't feel they can own up to it.
Did you see the opening of the People's Choice Awards? If you didn't you should watch it. I would say it would go under positive Pit Bull press for the week.
Posted by: Keira Fritzen | January 13, 2013 at 11:43 AM