Ohio Pit Bull Ban A Legal Nightmare

[eaglerock814]

Ohio Breed-Specific Legislation
Nothing But ‘Feel Good’ Politics

That Feels Very Bad To Many People Who Love Their Dogs

by JOHN YATES
The American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net

COLUMBUS, OH – Legislation banning “pit bulls,” sponsored by Rep. Tyrone K. Yates (D- 33rd District, Cincinnati), is government at its worst. House Bill 568 is ill conceived, based on fiction, harms innocent people and dogs, and just plain won’t work. It is Rep. Yates’ way of telling people that he is doing something, when he has no idea what to do.

H.B. 568 amends the Ohio dangerous dog law to ban “breeds commonly known as a pit bull dog.” It calls for seizure and forced euthanasia.

The bill, which was introduced in the House State Government and Elections Committee on May 19, has no cosponsors to date.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance is strongly opposed to this legislation for several reasons:

· Will the real pit bull please stand up. There is no such thing as a “pit bull.” It is not a recognized breed of dog. Most people associate it with American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers. Since there is no such thing as a “pit bull,” the legislation is unenforceable.

· Many other breeds are sometimes called “pit bulls” in the media and popular usage. These include the Perro de Presa Canario, Cane Corso, Dogo Argentino, Alano Espanol, Japanese Tosa, Dogue de Bordeaux, Cordoba Fighting Dog, Bull Terrier, Antebellum Bulldog, Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog, American Bulldog, Boxer, Valley Bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge, Renascence Bulldogge, and Banter Bulldogge. How far does Rep. Yates want to go?

· This legislation sets a very dangerous precedent. What’s next? Guard dogs, such as German shepherds, rottweilers and doberman pinchers?

· Sporting dog owners wonder if we also are on the list of breeds to be included in bans at some point. This has been proposed in several states, and also in the failed federal Pet Animal Welfare Act, which died in Congress last year. This legislation singled out sporting and guard dog breeds for especially intensive regulation. We cannot accept breed-specific precedents.

· It would be an animal control officer’s nightmare. Many dogs can look like the popular conception of a “pit bull,” but are not related to the associated breeds. If you cross an English pointer to a boxer, the result might look exactly like the mental image of a “pit bull,” but be totally unrelated to that group of breeds. A Boston terrier crossed to a Chihuahua also give something that looks an awful lot like a “pit bull” that weighs three pounds soaking wet. If Rep. Yates didn’t want to brutally murder innocent dogs, the situation would be a joke.

· One can imagine the attorneys’ arguments in a court of law. Is a dog that has a “pit bull” parent a “pit bull?” What if it has only one grandparent that is a “pit bull,” or only one great grandparent? Perhaps Rep. Yates is proposing that we exhume the bodies of a dog’s ancestors for DNA testing.

· Guess what would happen if the state begins to seize dogs that appear to be “pit bulls,” but are not? About 100 new lawyer jokes will be born overnight. There will be enough lawsuits filed to clog Ohio’s court system for years, and the taxpayers and animal control agencies ultimately will pay the price for Rep. Yates’ bad idea.

· Breed-specific legislation is often criticized for being racist, or at least for being a kind of racial profiling, as “pit bulls” often are associated with the Black community, where they are very popular. Some people have the image of a gangsta-type Black man walking down the street with two “pit bulls’ wearing spiked collars on a leash, merrily conducting illegal drug business. Others imagine dog fighting rings, which already are prohibited by existing laws. While dogs of the “pit bull” breeds are popular in Black communities, the real reasons are because they are fashionable, seen as protective dogs in dangerous neighborhoods, are an eloquent statement of a lack of faith in urban police protection and, most of all, because these breeds have a reputation of being loyal, loving and protective family members. Ironically, Rep. Yates is Black.

· At the very least, Rep. Yates’ bill represents breed profiling that is based solely upon appearance, and not because of a dog’s proven behavior. Few people would object to restrictions placed on a dog that has exhibited proven dangerous behavior. But to define a dangerous dog based on its appearance or pedigree is arbitrary, capricious and just plain dumb. There is no evidence that “pit bull” breeds and crosses are inherently dangerous. In fact, Chihuahuas and cocker spaniels are believed to bite people more frequently. A law cannot be called ethical when it condemns dogs to death and subjects their owners to emotional pain and financial loss with no good reason. There are no scientific studies to justify this law. Rep. Yates’ opinions fall far short of being gospel.

· Rather than the breed, it is most often the owners of dogs who are responsible for dangerous behavior. Some people deliberately raise dogs to be aggressive. In other dogs, aggression is linked to abuse and cruel treatment by their owners. Rep. Yates blames the dogs. We blame their owners.

· Rep. Yates appears to need to expand his capacity for compassion and empathy. It is simply wrong to rip beloved pets out of people’s arms and put them to death. Imagine if that happened to your pet, or your child’s?

· And this legislation is needlessly intrusive to people’s lives and privacy. It also denies people the constitutionally guaranteed protection of due process under the law.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance urges Ohioans to vigorously oppose this legislation.

Please write to members of the House State Government and Elections Committee and ask them to vote “no” on H.B. 568. This link shows a listing of all committee members’ names: http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/Committee.jsp?ID=24 . Click on a name and a page will open giving complete contact information.

Here is a link to the actual legislation: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bill ... 127_HB_568 .

If you would like to sign a petition opposing this legislation, please contact Becky Dunlap at witchmountain2@hotmail.com or Kendra Anne Bobulski at kbobulski@hotmail.com.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance is the unified voice of sporting dog owners and professionals in America. We work at the grassroots level to defeat unfair legislation and policies that are harmful to dogs and the people who own and work with them. Our work to protect your rights is supported solely by the donations of our members. Your participation and donations are vital to our success. Please visit us on the web at http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org. Our email is asda@csonline.net.

PLEASE FORWARD AND CROSS-POST THIS REPORT

[natetnc]

hope it doesn't go through, that would be crazy. i have a couple friends with pit bulls but they are taken care of and i have no problem letting them play with my brit. on the flipside the police just busted another dog fighting ring in a nearby town, something needs to be done but i don't think everyone should be punished. i am not nieve (sp?) so i know it has always been going on but i think the michael vick BS was a promotion for these events.

pit bulls with owners who do not know how to handle them are all too common, maybe owners of these "aggressive" breeds should have to take a preliminary course in obedience and a follow up once they get the dog. example: i made the mistake of going to the dog park to let my girl run for a bit when she was a pup and i lived in the city. when i got there no way was i going to let her in the big dog area, it was a 3 ring circus with a dog fight breaking out every 5 minutes. i let katie play in the little dog lot since there were no little ones there. first of all some lady brought her female there in season, what the heck was she thinking? but even after she left it was crazy. i think there was 5-6 pits and 2 akitas that couldn't get along with anyone. i felt sorry for this one guy over there, he had his two huskies and it was like they couldn't go out in the open or one of the others would go after them. all pits and akitas were owned by people who were obviously clueless, it was entertaining though to watch them try their "cesar" commands on the dogs, all you could hear was "ssshhh, ssshhh, sshhh" anyway glad i got some land for my dogs to run around on now.

[eaglerock814]

I agree, totally.

I have very little personal exerience with "pit bulls," and quite frankly it is not a breed that interests me. I tend to wonder about people who own breeds that are perceived to be aggressive or overly territorial.

But the truth is, the few pit bulls I have actually been around were real sweethearts. Once, about 25 years ago, I had a girlfriend who rescued a litter of pit bull puppies that were being mistreated. Of course, she dumped them on me until she found homes for them. I kept them a couple of months. They were friendly and playful, and didn't squabble with each other, even at feeding time.

For me, I'll stick with setters. They bark at strangers...just before they leap up and start licking them.

With pit bulls, the problem is 99% their owners. A lot of the wrong people get this breed for all the wrong reasons. Like you said, they don't know how to handle them.

I really believe the whole dog fighting scandal is a hoax. Yes, there are dog fighting rings in America, and there have been for hundreds of years. But this represesnts only a tiny sub-fraction of dog owners...even pit bull owners.

The fact is, I have never seen a dog fight and never even heard a rumor that any exist anywhere I live.

I see the dog fighting scandal as just another ploy by animal rights groups to make dog owners look bad. They use all of the horror stories of many kinds to paint us with tar...to try to paint us as exploiters.

All of us know the truth: We love our dogs and treat them like royalty!

[hoffmann35]

Without reading the proposed legislature, I would be willing to be that dog fighting is not the only reason for this coming up. Many of the "pit bull" breeds are a serious concern for law enforcement officials. I would be willing to bet that officer safety has something to do with it as well.

BTW, I don't agree with euthanising the dogs, but a different avenue should be approached.