Comments on: The Pit Bull Who Could Only Forgive

By: baileykix

baileykix — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:42:38 +0000

This is a breed that has been maligned for too long. The dregs of society, ie. dogfighters, abusers, inhuman monsters have exploited the very traits inherent in this breed (loyalty, willingness to please, etc.) and once again made something very ugly out of something that is so precious. I don’t blame a dog for aggression that comes about as a result of torture and neglect. I blame the owner – I won’t even call him “irresponsible” because many times the treatment a dog like this breed receives goes beyond “irresponsibilty”, falling more under the category of intentional abuse. That is why I would love to see more people with a Zero Tolerance for any such abuse they encounter, with the guts to actually do something about it when they encounter is. Forgive me for my rant, but its something I’m very passionate about.

By: Scarier than a haunted dog house on Halloween «

Scarier than a haunted dog house on Halloween « — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:58:00 +0000

[...] PSS: Find out WHY fighting breed discrimination is so personal to me in my tribute to Petey: The Pit Bull Who Could Only Forgive. [...]

By: sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:43:07 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:18:10 +0000

I wish all councilmen were you like you, Councilman Schoenfeld. If legislators knew as much about pit bulls as you do, we wouldn’t have this problem. It’s up to the people to get the right people in office who are educated about this breed and kick out the ones who are pushing bsl and refuse to educate themselves before enacting bad legislation.

By: Animal Law Coalition

Animal Law Coalition — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:39:39 +0000

Wonderful insight – a great forthright look at what we are doing to these dogs. Thank you, Paula.

By: Andy Whiteman

Andy Whiteman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:47:45 +0000

Kory Nelson’s efforts would be better spent on enacting a ban to keep undesirable people out of Denver. The problem is the owner NOT the dog.

http://www.shopwhiteman.us/Pets.html

By: Gayle

Gayle — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:54:21 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing about the ignorance of banning specific breeds. Having been blessed with sharing my life with two Pit girls that were, as so many others, goodwill ambassadors for their breed.

It’s unbelievable that a loving family will have their home owner insurance dropped if their family pet even resembles a Pit. The local shelters are forced to lie and use breed descriptions like “boxer-mix, lab-mix, etc.” It’s funny when it’s not so sad. Anyone who knows and loves a dog regardless of breed doesn’t care what breed it is.

By: Ann K.

Ann K. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:57:16 +0000

It’s the people, not the staffies that are the problem. Go after the people.

By: Councilman Mark Schoenfeld

Councilman Mark Schoenfeld — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:12:25 +0000

The State of Ohio currently has a BSL, (breed specific legislative bill) that will outlaw Pitbull Canines. The provisions will allegedly create a police state where anything resembling a pit bull will be seized from citizens homes by a task force of Police Officers and Animal Regulation Officers. Not only is this a taking by government prohibited by the 5th Amendment prohibition of condemnation applicable to every state through the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment, it’s even worse. It’s an example of a police state entering your home based on racial profiling and taking a member of your family to be murdered, or euthanized, A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY OUTLAWED AND SUBJECT TO SEIZURE WITHOUT NOTICE AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD IN A COURT OF LAW, OR GRANDFATHERED IN FOR LICENSED ANIMALS. FOR OHIOAN’S, WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN THEY SHOW UP TO YOUR HOUSE TO SEIZE YOUR FAMILY PET OR YOUR DOG WHO IS AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR CHILDREN TO BE TAKEN AWAY IN NECKCUFFS TO BE EUTHANIZED WITHOUT A FAIR TRIAL? How will they know you have a Pit Bull or a canine who might be misidentified as a pit bull? Why should your loved one companion animal be destroyed when you as a responsible pet owner have never let him or her off leash, and have secured your yards so your canine can not get out even by accident. How many times have you cut your own back yard grass because you don’t trust your gardener to keep the yard secure. Keeping your gates padlocked, and the canine is always subject to your immediate control. The easiest way for police and government to find “law abiding canine owners” is to go through the cities lists of licensed animals and see how they are described by breed whether accurate or not, and attack the “easy targets, the “law abiding dog owners”. Will the Ohio State Police, Local Police and the Animal Control Officers show up at your h0use without a warrant, and take your canine companion based on what they believe is his or her breed while they hold you off at gunpoint. The reason they won’t have a warrant is that they would never likely have sufficient evidence to acquire a warrant from a Court of competent jurisdiction because no crime has been committed, no sufficient probable cause exists for a search. It’s the Ohio State “Nazi Germany Gestapo” acting outside the Constitutional protections meant to apply to all American citizens. Kind of reminds me of Kent State University. Shoot first and ask questions later. Dog’s, College Students with a rightfully presented political opinion, what’s the difference. Kent State was no more humane than Tienamen Square in China. There was no 14th Amendment right to due process and equal protection. There was at Kent State no advocation of violent overthrow of the government which would have not been Constitutionally protected free speech. It was a bunch of college kids expressing their right to protest a war. No person, or their property under our Constitution shall be subject to unreasonable searches or seizures, be taken without just compensation, following a full hearing. Reasonable means that every seizure must be based on probable cause, and following a full blown hearing. Canines are considered property under the common law the the statutes of most states but even that is changing much like the Courts are recognizing same sex marriages. If government in Ohio and other states is successful in implementing breed specific legislation, you can count on government being active in invading your home again tomorrow to take the rest of your rights away. We as a people should outlaw ignorant, irresponsible and stupid dog owners, not a dog because of the size of his head, or his feet, or the amount of jaw pressure his bite may or may not have. Isn’t breed specific legislation the same insidious hate against human beings that we all want to stop? Racial profiling, searches and seizures based on ethnicity, country of origin, (perhaps not religion), but also on the appearance of the canine. Isn’t this insidious discrimination moving forward against animals and their owners who have never been involved in anything bad and whose hated breed has in fact been inv0lved in community services, socialization, qualified as service dogs, volunteers. If society doesn’t want humans treated and clearly we don’t then why would we validate this same kind of insidious discrimination against a breed of animals as a whole? I won a volunteer of the year commitment award for my efforts in an animal shelter. I was only bitten once. It was by a cocker spaniel, very cute, but a horrible choice of a pet for a child. While I agree that an animal attacks someone for no reason or kills a human being should be seized and euthanized, it begs the question of where and why the owner let it run loose. Perhaps we should hang the owner in the town square as an example of an accomplice to murder. Anyone remember the Dianne Whipple story in San Francisco? A beautiful 33 year old innocent woman killed by a Presa Canario trained to attack. That is a perfect example. California has strict liability in tort law for dog bites. No longer does every dog have an entitlement for one bite. The owner is liable. Knowing that, owners are held responsible for the conduct of their canines. On the flip side, responsible pet owners never give their dogs an opportunity to hurt someone or another animal. We have leash laws, fence and gate laws, but mostly responsible pet owners love their canines and take every precaution to make sure they don’t get loose never to be found and destroyed because they don’t have a microchip, a collar with ID or an easy way to be identified. Sorry for the long write. This is a topic that just inflames me.

By: jDc

jDc — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:03:36 +0000

I remember 18 to 20 years ago when several eastern cities tried, some sucessfully, to out law Pit Bulls and Rotts. In my current city of Long Beach, Calif. breeding and selling of dogs in general has been out lawed. Over reactive recue organizations, PETA and some of the media are doing more harm than good to our pet companions, our industry and to society at large. Their organized numbers and hysteria consistently get the ear of politicians seeking re-election. the bigger problem seems to be a lack of sources for people to go for help in properly selecting a pet for their lifestyle, pet stewartship classes for families to educate and assimilate their pet into the family with and a crisis center for people to go to for help when things start to go wrong. While I was at Cornell studying animal behavior and nutrition I created a breed and behavior chart that our community use to narrow down the most appropriate breeds for selecting a pet companion by. Many local colleges as well as Cornell university had excellent behavior molding and animal education classes for the community to use in raising a reliable house pet. In the past 20 years I have tried to convience the L.A. ASPCA , city run humane shelters and local rescue organizations to adopt a similiar structure. They rather hold to their dated ways of doing business and kill countless numbers of dogs than make a change to a more proactive way of supporting the community they are suppost to be serving. All I see is killing, blame and over regulation. Where are the solutions?