Stop BSL legislation (pitbulls, shepherd, shepherds, biting)

[Wicked Felina]

On Saturday I learned that there was a pit-bull ban bill headed for the Oregon Senate. Today, we learned that the sponsor of the Bill had withdrawn it due to a large public outcry against such measures.

That struck a little too close to home for me. While any similar Bill will not pass soon, this close call has moved me to become even more vigilant and active.

I do not have a "pit" bull. And may never. But the bottom line is I believe any measure or bill banning types of dogs are very dangerous and would not stop with "pits."

BTW, I also learned that "pit bull" is a slang designation, and could apply to most any breed with similar characteristics. Such as you'll see in the link: dogs have been removed from their loving owners, and killed, simply because they "looked" like a Pit dog -even against a veterinary's judgement.

This is FYI. The link shows the current status of Bill and bans across the country.

Stop BSL

[kaylor]

Also, very good sites on dog legislation

Punish the Deed, not the Breed!


American Dog Owners Association - Legislation By State (http://www.adoa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=5&Ite mid=33 - broken link)

You/we must remain vigilant. If you go to the Portland, OR KATU news articles listed on the ADOA site, you will see there were over 600 comments on the first article. These people also filled the senators email box, I'm guessing. It didn't take him long to answer some and put out a press release.

On the second story (Monday, saying no go) several people talked about "if" they would just enforce existing laws.
That's what I say about these redundant breeder laws. There are already plenty of laws on the books.
The ADOA site as some "sample" letters that can be used to send to these people.
The one on BSL is great. There is also one posted under Oklahoma on breeders.
http://benedict.lunarbreeze.com/~adoa00/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=928 klahoma-hb-1332-opposition-letter&catid=125klahoma&Itemid=200093 (broken link)

[Connecticut Pam]

You can all thank people like Michael Vick and those who insist on walking around with their muscled up pit bulls with the bad ass collars on thinking they are all tough for this type of anti pit bull crap. I just get so totally tired of people being so mis-informed about them. I DO HAVE ONE and she is the best pet I have ever owned. I rescued my Pit. Some moron had tied her to a dumpster in the city and had left her there. She had already been bred for pups at 11 months old which is way too soon and they stole all her pups and left her behind. When we first saw her, she weighed 24 pounds and was still bleeding from having had the pups. Through all her hunger, pain and bout of kennel cough she was going through, she looked up at me tail wagging and gave me a little whimper. There was NO WAY I was leaving her at the shelter and NO WAY whoever abandoned her would find her again let alone get her back. You see, when these dogs won't fight the way the bad asses want them to, then if female they breed them, take the puppies then leave the female behind. If they are male, they abandon them in old buildings or tie them up somewhere and walk away. These dogs are found skinny, starving, sick, cut up from fighting and either really mean or very scared to be near anyone. WHY would anyone stop people from rescuing the pits out there who need us so bad?? Why can't the law take the extra time and effort to REMOVE these dogs who have been trained to fight from people who only want to make money off them and think it is COOL to hurt them.

Am I angry...you bet your posterior end I am. ANY dog can become a menace if not taken care of properly. My nephew in Maine had half of his face taken off from a German Shepherd who was tied up at the time...biting and being aggressive is not limited to just Pits. I was at the vets when a woman came in with her puppy who had been mauled by a Bull Mastiff.

The issue at hand here is to not ban the breed but to make sure that whoever owns one is capable of taking care of them as they should be. Develop some sort of screening for potential Pit Bull Owners..hell for any dog owner. We tend to let just anyone adopt dogs, purchase dogs, we have no control over puppy mills and in the long run it only hurts the animal who gets branded as a menace when in fact it isn't even close to true.

Come on Pit Bull Owners...speak up about this...it is time these loving little guys got their just dues....let everyone know that they are not the monsters everyone thinks they are and that the monsters are the owners who do not take responsibility for the breed.

[kaylor]

Some of us are trying, little or no help from the AC people who don't enforce thelaws on the books.
It would do your heart good to read all the comments on that Oregon story. Wham, they stopped that in its tracks. Years back they tried to ban German Shepherds and Dobermans. Took a lot of work to stop that, too.

How can they raise the pups if they take them away from the mother? That takes a lot of work I didn't think those people would be willing to do. Raising newborn puppies is just about impossible without the mother. Can be done, but ..........

I wish there was some kind of effective screening for potential puppy buyers. There just isn't.
But, I would sure support anything along that line. Animal shelters don't even screen anyone.

[dogcrazy]

I work at a shelter in NY.First off WE screen people.Especially people interested in adopting a pitbull,rottie,german shep.We'd rather see a dog humanely euthanized rather than just giving it to anyone just so it has a home.All our dogs are spayed and neutered and vaccinated before leaving.We do applications for dogs AND cats.If we dont get a good vibe from someone then theyre application is denied.Most of the animals we get are from bad situations and we want them in a great forever home.So many people around where i live just leave these dogs outside.Many hispanics always tell us"thats how dogs live in my country..."Well were not in you effing country.The towns surrounding the shelter i work are basically sh*tholes.Gangs.. dog fighting. Probably 80% of the dogs we have at any given time is..you guessed it!Pitbull or pitbull mix!And guess what?90% of the public has something nasty and negative to say as they walk out of the shelter."so many pitbulls""i would never own one of them" oh and this ones my favorite"Its a pitbull factory in there"We evaluate all our dogs to see whta theyre temperment is like before being up for adoption.If any dog shows aggression we will not place it up for adoption.Well id say most if not pretty much all the pits are WONDERFUL!The only problem we have is that most of them are animal aggressive.Of course we have a few not so friendly pits come along once in a while but the condition they come in is horrible so i do not blame them for their issues.And i do believe that any pitbull that shows any signs of aggression should be humanely euthanized.It is NOT a characteristic of the breed to show aggression towards humans.But we rarely see aggressive pits so i dont worry about it.But honestly,atleast half the pitbulls that come into our doors are covered in scars,rescued from horrible situations,are like a walking bag of bones,have ears that were clearly just cut off at home with a pair of scissors..etc..And they still LOVE people!!!That amazes me!What these poor dogs go through and how loyal they are!!They are the most abused breed in the WORLD!People need to pull their head out of their rear end and give this breed a break!spend some time at your local shelter and you will understand what a wonderful breed this really is.I have two of my own and they are amazing!Theyre such an intelligent breed it is unreal.Im SO tired of hearing people complain about them.Its getting old.And like everyone else has been saying..theyll ban pitbulls and anything that resembles a pitbull(that will affect SOOO many dogs and people) and then theyll move on to different breeds.We had a cocker spaniel we couldnt get near unless we poled him.Most cockers i encounter are nasty as ever.Should we ban them too???WAKE UP PEOPLE!We need to stand up now for this breed because when they come for your breed of choice youll be sorry.

[Blondie621]

It is the ghetto gangstas doing all this. I say go into those areas and sieze all pits and other dogs being abused. First a ranch out west for rescue would have to be set up to care for all of them until homes were found. Something like Best Friends in Utah. But you know what? Even if that was done what is to stop them from getting another dog a week later? It is way too far out of control. Everday they are breeding, abusing and fighting dogs all over this country and the world. How do we get a handle on something that is so out of control? I do not have an answer. But what I do know, is no one will ever knock on my door and take away any of my dogs from me! EVER! I seriously think that for all of the abuse to stop, the world would have to come to an end! This is how out of control it is. So sad for the animals!

[kaylor]

dogcrazy........my apology for my near sightedness......I should say the shelter in my area doesn't screen anymore, but I do know there are many that do and many that don't. They all are independent and act independently. Just like pet owners, i.e. some good, some bad (and breeders).

So, maybe we need standardized laws relating to animal shelters?

I have also noticed the screening process has taken a turn for lying, just like the intake process when 'shelters' ask why they are bringing the dog in. People try to come up with a more valid excuse than some of the old standards. They have learned what is acceptable and what isn't quite so easy to swallow, doesn't mean they actually do it, though.

I live about 25 miles from a town that has a horrid problem with dog fighting in the inner-city. I half-suspect that many of the dogs involved are stray dogs that just happen to get into a fight whenever they cross paths with another dog. If they enforced the leash law they wouldn't have dogs fighting in the street. But, then, hmmmmmmmmmmm..............that would mean the dog catcher would have to catch a dog or two. Oh no........no,no,no,no,no that ain't gonna happen. They might get their uniform dirty, they might get bit. No way no dog catcher is gonna catch no dog around there. Well, the stray dogs have gotten so completely out of hand that they were "packing up" and they had to do something about them. I think they live-trapped when that happened, but I'm not sure. Even that means the dogs were all killed.

[BrianH]

It has been brought up by one idiot or another in New Mexico too. Luckily enough in NM that is as far as it has gotten, and will get for the foreseeable future as former State Rep Brian Moore told me.