KC DOG BLOG

Why knowledge is power - Broward County, FL edition

Last week, Broward County Vice Mayor Barbara Sharief proposed a new bill that would make ownership of pit bulls illegal in Broward County. The law would have been opposed to the state law which prohibits breed-specific legislation so the city would have had to lobby the state to allow them to probibit pit bull ownership.

Sharief seemed very confident that the bill would be adopted, telling the Broward New Times: "It has a pretty good chance of being adopted. I'm not asking for anything unreasonable....We're absolutely going to get backlash for this, but we have more supporters than backlashers."

Well, Sharief appeared to be wrong in her assumptions.

First of all, the New Times did a nice job of posting a story with scientific data noting that "pit bulls' were actually less aggressive toward both their owners, and strangers, than many other breeds of dogs.

Then, there's the reality that her law was based on the Miami-Dade ordinance -- even though with the ban in Miami-Dade they had a significantly higher dog bite/per capita than Broward County had without a ban.

Then, in an informal poll (which isn't scientific, but is telling), 84% of a local news station's voters said they opposed a ban on specific breeds of dogs.

Then, there's the reality that there really wasn't much support for her proposal. Yesterday, with the hearing of the ordinance, there was a packed house at the Commission chambers and nearly 60 people showed up to speak at yesterday's hearing on the law, and nearly all opposed it. One councilman noted that he got more than 1000 emails opposing the law, and only 11 in favor. Opposition also included representatives from the Humane Society of Broward County.

So with the opposition, Sharief withdrew her propsal -- and noted to the New Times that she was "surprised it was met with such fierce opposition."  She now plans to assemble a group of animal experts to discuss other possibilities outside of her proposal. 

I'm not surprised at the opposition.  This same opposition is met every time something like this is brought up because the science doesn't support breed specific laws, and there is an overwelming lack of professional support for them. Again, knowledge is power. And people and legislators who support breed-specific laws tend to not have the knowledge they need to make such a decision, or have gotten information from unreliable, non expert sources. Her proposal was shown to once again ignore the science, the knowledge of professionals in her community and not have the support of the majority of people in her community.

Congrats to the folks in Broward County, and hopefull the revised proposal is something far more reliable and impactful.

Weekly Roundup - Week ending 2/24/13

Rounding up the top stories you may have missed from the week that was.

Cities/States and Laws

Missouri is working to shed its image as the "Puppy Mill Capital" after some new rules and increased enforcement of existing rules has caused many of the state's commercial breeding operations to shut down.

In the UK, there is more discussion that the country's breed ban is not doing nearly enough to protect people from dogs, and that the law is "woefully inadequate".  Breed bans are a terrible form of public policy because instead of focusing resources on aggressive dogs (based on behavior) regardless of breed, it uses resources to round up breeds of dogs because of how they look, even if they are not aggressive. The UK has been struggling with their breed ban for decades, and continue to face pressure to provide better support for the law.

The Oakland Press (MI) is supporting a move to repeal Waterford Township's breed ban that was enacted 23 years ago to a breed-neutral bill that would focus on responsible pet ownership.

 The community of Watertown, WI is looking at a potential law that would put special restrictions on 'pit bulls' -- and residents overflowed city hall in opposition to the bill. According to their own numbers, the new restrictions would impact dogs responsible for less than 20% of their total dog bites in the community with no attention paid to dogs involved in the other 80%+ of dog bites.

Dog Bites/Attacks

Dogs are very loving to humans -- and in spite of our inadequacies at times in understanding their needs, they are outstanding to adapting to the environment we put them in. But there are times when dogs do bite or attack, and in those cases, it's important to look at the CIRCUMSTANCES that led up to the attack, not the type of dog involved. Here are a couple of stories from the past week:

A six year old boy in Mansfield, MA required 400 stitches -- mostly to his face -after being bitten by his babysitter's "Pointer/Hound mix".

In Arizona, a story about an increase in dog bites at an area hospital that notes that training is essential to minimizing dog bites, as well as being careful around strange dogs. It also notes that most bites are highly preventable. It's great to see a story that focuses on the causes around bites and not just fear-mongering.

Abuse Cases

A pit bull that was found abandoned in Limestone County, AL had a 22 lbs chain embedded in her neck. Honestly, there are times when you hear stuff like this and see how humans treat dogs that it's a wonder that more of us aren't attacked by dogs each year -- and a testiment to how loving and forgiving dogs are of humans.

No Kill News

A newly formed group, St. Catharines Pets Alive, is seeking to win the contract of their local animal shelter so they can have access to saving more lives. This group has some major hurdles to overcome (such as the need for a shelter facility), but it's a smart, compassionate group that is seeking to do right by the shelter animals in their community.

The West Valley City/Taylorsville, UT animal shelter is working toward no kill status.  Last year they had 3 months with save rates above 90%, and another 3 that were in the 84-88% range. I'm always encouraged by shelters making progress toward the goal and that the last 5-8% to get to 90% is HARD.

Petaluma, CA, a city with a population of 58,000 people (and home to the best brewery in the world) is reporting a life release rate of 94% after Petaluma Animal Services Foundation took over the open-admission shelter in August of 2012. The live release rate had been around 83% prior to them taking over.

Positive Press

The CBS Affiliate in Philadelphia highlights the positive side of pit bulls -- as working dogs, therepy dogs as family pets.

An Albany, NY man seeks to de-demonize pit bulls.

Miscellaneous

A Missouri Company helps console pet owners by freeze-drying their pets so they can keep them around forever. Would you consider doing this?  It seems pretty creepy to me, but does show how attached people are to their pets and how important a part of our lives they are....but still.

This is a fantastic video about an HSUS program "Pets for Life" that helps low income people in urban Philadelphia be better pet owners by providing them some much needed resources. I LOVE programs like this, and while HSUS gets a lot of grief (deservedly so at times), they also have some very good programs, and I believe this is one of them.

Blogs

"I didn't call the vet because...." - Christie Keith looks at reasons why people say they did not take their dog to a vet, one of which is that people really, often, don't want to follow the advice the vet willl give them.

Benefits and risks of neutering, an evidence update: Study Investigates Effects of Neutering in Golden Retrievers -- this is a great look at the study I discussed last week from SkeptVet Blog

Ripples in the Rescue World -- Paws Abililites looks at shelter dogs, and how most dogs end up in shelters not because they're damaged, but because they're unlucky. Yet, there are ripples that hurt all rescue dogs when aggressive dogs are irresponsibly adopted out into the public. It's a thought-provoking post and one that you should definitely take the time to read....

 Know the opposition: "Why are you blaming shelters? -- Christie Keith notes that many accuse the No Kill movement of blaming shelters for the problem, and Christie notes that it's because that's where the animals are dying.

The Radical notion of not killing our friends -- some good thoughts on No Kill from Francis Battista at Best Friends.

Another myth bites the dust -- a great look at appointment systems for owner surrenders from No Kill News that looks at Lynchburg, VA and how their appointment system did not increase intake at neighboring shelters as critics often say it will.

It's not how they're raised, It's how they're managed that matters most -- This is an older blog posting (from November), but I think it's an important look at the mantra "it's how they were raised". While there is some truth to the mantra, the reality is that dogs live "in the now" much more than humans do, and generally adapt pretty quickly to new environments. And it's how they're managed NOW that is the most influential part.

I'm posting this because it's the opposite of a good blog posting -- "The Truth behind "Free to Good Home" Ads -- it's this type of post that drives me crazy -- when someone poses something as "The truth about" and then just says oft-repeated mantra's that actually have no real factual evidence to support outside of an occassional annecdote. There is no evidence that "free" means people won't care about their pet. In fact, 2 of my 3 I got "free" off the streets. Geting a dog "free" does not mean someone will abandon their dog to the streets, or hand them over to animal control, or abuse them as this writer suggests.

Neutering and behavior -- Angry Vet looks at the science behind the behavioral effects of neutering of male dogs.

Some positive imagery from Men's Health

In the September 2012 issue of Men's Health Magazine, they have a fantastic article entitled "Be the man your dog thinks you are."

The article is good, and worth reading in its own right. But for the purposes of this blog, I thought I'd highlight the pictures that accompany the story.

The images are of NFL Linebacker Kamerion Wimbley and his dog Yogi. Yogi is a pretty consistent workout partner with Wimbley and they talk a bit about that routine.

There are several of images of the two of them together -- in an article talking about consistency, rewarding, discipline and setting appropriate expectations.

And of course, the loyal companion, Yogi, is a pit bull. You can actually see all the photos from the magazine article here.

I've spoken before about the narrative of the pit bull in the United States, and my strong belief that the narrative is (thankfully) changing -- and that magazines are more consistently showing more  positive pit bull imagery than ever before -- shwoing them simply, as what they are, dogs.

It's fun to see the transition, and to see more positive pit bull imagery in the media. Enjoy.

Photo Credit: Men's Health Magazine - September 2012

 

Quotes about Dogs

Fun Friday continues....

Every month, on the last page of Progressive Farmer Magazine, they have a section called Cornerstones. Essentially, Cornerstones is a section where they take a topic, and then put famous and/or pithy quotes about that topic from famous (or not famous) people over the years.

In the April, 2011 issue, the topic was "Dogs". And the following are a few of the quote highlights from this issue.

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." - Samuel Butler

"Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog" - Franklin P. Jones

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful" - Ann Landers

"If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket adn then giving Fido only two of them." - Phil Pastore

"A dog is not "almost human" and I know of no greater insult to the canine race than to describe it as such." - John Holmes

"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear." - David Berry

"If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience" - Woodrow Wilson

"If you can look at a dog and not feel vicarious excitement and affection, you must be a cat" - Unknown

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." - Winston Churchill

"I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the unihibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better." - George Bird Evans

"Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul -- chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on Earth!" - Anne Tyler

"We give dogs love we can spare, time we can spare and room we can spare. In return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made." - Mary Focklam

"Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault really." Agnes Sligh Turnbullw

Friday Fun Day - Lessons in Trust from Cats and Dogs

A few kind of fun things to share today, because, well, I've been snowed in for 36 hours and feeling a little punchy.  First off, is this 2 minute video is a nice lesson in teaching and trust from a dog, and a cat. Looks about right.

 

H/T: Good

Series of games promises to measure your dog's intelligence

Well, I found this interesting. Dr. Brian Hare, a biological anthropologist from Duke University has started a company called "Dognition". Dognition is essentially a series of games/tests that you go through with your dog to help determine its intelligence/learning style in 5 key fields: empathy, memory, cunning, reasoning and communication.

Check out the promotional video below.

 

I'm certainly not advocacting for this test (which runs about $60). But it is interesting. Any of you dog trainers out there care to comment?  Brilliant? Scam?  Somewhere in between?  Would love to know your thoughts.

H/T: PSFK

Legislation favoring breed-neutral legislation moves forward in 3 states

There are quite a few state-level laws that are moving forward, and here's a quick update on where the bills are. There is certainly a lot of momentum for the laws that favor NOT singling out particular breeds of dogs and in favor of behavior-based legislation.

Maryland

In Maryland, the state House of Representatives UNANIMOUSLY approved a bill, HB 78, that overrides a 2012 court decision that increased liability for pit bulls because they were presumed "Inherently dangerous". The new law puts all dog owners on equal footing and makes all owners of dogs that bite equally liable under the law.

The fact that this passed by a vote of 133-0 is pretty telling. In partisan politics, there are very few things both parties can agree on, let alone ALL 133 delegates agreeing on the same thing. It's also important to note that several of the major pit bull bashers flew to Maryland to testify against this bill and still persuaded exactly no one to vote in their favor.

The bill now moves to the Senate to be heard there.

New Mexico

In Sante Fe, the state House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported a bill that makes it illegal for local municpalities to pass laws targeting specific breeds. New Mexico would become the 14th state to ban laws targeting specific breeds. Massachusetts passed similar law last year. The New Mexico bill passed with 77% of the vote, 48-14.

Originally the bill would have kept all cities from passing breed-specific laws, however, some modifications to the bill would allow the state's 11 home rule cities to target specific breeds if they want. It also allows the state's only two cities that currently have breed-specifc laws (Elephant Butte and Tijeras) to keep their laws. However, the law would prevent the other 120 incorporated cities in the state from targeting specific breeds.

I should also note that most of the opposition to the bill seems to be centered around the idea that the big state government is being overly-involved in local affairs and not because anyone necessarily thinks breed-specific laws are a good idea.

The bill now moves onto the Senate.

Connecticut

In Connecticut, HB 6311 was proposed and it would also prohibit towns from addressing dangerous dogs in a breed-specific manner. Public testimony was supposed to take place yesterday on the bill. The author of the bill, Rep. Diana Urbana, notes that it is important to realize that dogs can still be labeled as dangerous, but that bred can't be the criteria.

This is all outstanding progress for the dogs, dog owners, and the public in this country. The sooner people realize that targeting dangerous dogs based on dangerous behavior, and not what they look like, the better we'll be able to use resources to target dangerous dogs (and negligent owners).

I'll continue to keep people periodically up to date on these laws and if you live in these states, please contact your state representatives and senators to encourage them to support these bills. For more regular updates, follow Bless the Bullies either on their blog, or on Facebook, as she posts updates as they happen.

Recreating the wheel - very good sentences from the Book Little Boy Blue

A couple of weeks ago, I review Kim Kavin's book, Little Boy Blue. You can read my entire review here.

However, there is a really great section of the book that I wanted to highlight because I found it, and Kim's handling of the issue, interesting.

Later in the book, Kavin explores the juxtoposition between some more progressive shelters in the Northeast to a few of the high-kill shelters in the South. And she specifically talks about how North Shore Animal League (and Northeast Animal League) grew into being major adoption centers.

In the section, she highlights an article written about Alexander Lewyt by the Wall Street Journal in 1975. The section talks about how Lewyt worked to run the rescue like it was a corporation, not just a rescue -- and I think Kavin's words, and the WSJ story, are pretty eye opening. The section begins talking about a mailing that Lewyt wrote to raise funds for the organization:

"The mailing brought in $11,000, which is the equivalent to about $67,000 today. Within the next 5 years, the shelter's staff grew from one to twenty-five employees, its hours of peration increased to every day of the year and its advertising budget alone was earmarked at $50,000 (about $125,000 in current dollars). That's why The Wall Street Journal had taken notice. Lewyt was running the shelter as if it were a corporation -- work he would continue until his death in 1988. 'We have the same concept as bringing any product to the public,'' Lewyt told the Journal in 1975. 'We have receivables, our inventories. And if the product doesn't move, we have a promotion...Most animal shelters are run by well-intentioned people who don't know anything about fund-raising or running the place like a business. The only reason they don't go broke is that a little old lady dies every year and leaves them something'...

Later, Kavin concludes:

"It's incredibly frustrating that shelters with kill rates as high as the one in Person County even exist, especially since the road map for giving every possible dog a home has been available in print since at least 1975, since the day the Wall Street Journal printed an article about Alexander Lewyt that so inspired Cindi Shapiro" (Shapiro later founded Northeast Animal Shelter in Massachusetts after reading the WSJ article). "In that article Lewyt tals about how whe can find a home for virtually any animal, even ones who are blind, deaf, or missing a leg. He told the newspaper that the "unadoptable" dogs simply need to be treated as special cases and marketed in a way that makes their disadvantages seem like attributes."

Try as I might, I was unable to find the article from 1975 that Kavin refers to online (yes, I realize the internet really didn't exist in 1975, but I hoped it had been reposted somewhere). But I think it's very interesting how long a road map for success has been around. The idea that running a shelter like a business, with real Profit/Loss data is not new. The idea that in business terms, shelter animals are "inventory" that need to be adopted out to make room for new inventory daily is essential is not new. And the diea that marketing and promotions can help move these animals out into homes is not new. These ideas have been around for 35 years -- and yet, so few shelters still think of it this way (and sometimes it's even considered taboo to think of animals as "inventory"). Yet, this approach has been successful, over and over again.

Thanks to Kavin for highlighting this story, and for pointing out the disconnect that even 35 years later, how disappointing it is that there are a lot of shelters that still haven't learned from the success of others.

Tragic dog bite related fatality in Sabinal, TX

Over the weekend, 2 year old Isaiah Aguilar was tragically killed by his neighbor's dog.

Accoring to the reports, the 2 year old toddler was playing in the yard with a balloon when the wind blew the balloon away from him and into the neighbor's yard. The boy went through a "hole" in the fence to get the balloon and approached one of two dogs (reported by the media as "pit bulls") that was chained in the yard of the home (based on the images in this news report, there is every reason to believe the dogs lived their lives on these chains) The boy got within the range of the chain and was bitten multiple times by the dog.

According to the boy's sister, the owner of the dog's saw the incident and came to the door, but when they saw what was happening, just shook their head and walked back inside. The dog's owners were apparently relatives of the victim and according to the victim's parents, knew the dogs were vicious because they had "raised them to be that way".

The boy's parents came back outside when they heard the commotion and called for help, but the boy died at the hospital (which was 20 miles away).

The story has been picked up in about a dozen media outlets. The small community of Sabinal, with a population of 1500 people, has a poverty rate of more than 30% -- more than double the national average.

This is yet another example of why people/places/news sources that focus on the breed of dog involved are completely misplaced in their interpretation of these very rare, tragic events. First of all, it's absolutely NOT ok for people to own incredibly aggressive dogs. And chaining dogs has a known impact on the psyche of a dog and will help cause it to aggress. It is also not ok for parents to leave their toddlers out unsupervised. There are a host of things that young toddlers can get into if left unattended. And it's impossible to ignore that tragedies like this one seem to be a symptom of much large social issues than being actual dog issues. We must continue to focus on all of the circumstances surrounding these events if we hope to prevent them. This event was caused by a series of human-created circumstances -- and should be treated as such.

This is a horrible incident and my thoughts and prayers go out to the Aguilar family. 

Orrville, OH repeals breed-specific law

Like many communities in Ohio, Orrville had a long-standing breed-specific law targeting pit bulls in their community that was modeled after the state law.

A year ago, the state of Ohio passed HB 14 into law, and repealed the state-wide prohibitions on pit bulls.

Since that time, nearly a dozen communities in Ohio have removed their local pit bull legislation, including Lebanon, Strongville, Geneva on the Lake, North Royalton, Painsville, Shreve, Bay Village, Avon Lake, and Cincinnati. Other cities, like Cleveland and Toledo repealed theirs prior to the change in the state law.

Now, Orrville has joined the ranks (thanks to Stop BSL for the hat tip).

Logic, common sense, and expert testimony are clearly beginning to win out over hysteria and nonsense in the talk about dangerous dog laws, and communities are overwhelmingly choosing to go with breed-neutral, behavior-based laws instead of breed-specific ones.

Congrats to the community of Orrville.