My city mulling Pit Bull / Dangerous Animal ban

[Lishy]

I'm not a dog person. AT ALL!!!

But then again, I don't think I can complain since I find Dwarf Caiman to be cute.

 

[cindy25]

what is needed is Boomer's Law, and while this is a state issue I thought I'd bring it up

 

[tod evans]

If city counsel really wants to legislate "protection" look at drivers......under 25....over 65.......cars over 10yrs old.
Maybe follow Cal. ....legislate fat in food.
Wait....how about legislating income? Poor folks comit more crimes than rich ones...Far more citizens are harmed by people who are poor than by pitbulls........outlaw young/poor/old/black/white/red......

 

[papitosabe]

If city counsel really wants to legislate "protection" look at drivers......under 25....over 65.......cars over 10yrs old.
Maybe follow Cal. ....legislate fat in food.
Wait....how about legislating income? Poor folks comit more crimes than rich ones...Far more citizens are harmed by people who are poor than by pitbulls........outlaw young/poor/old/black/white/red......

meh...just pitbulls...maybe alligators too..

 

[cindy25]

If city counsel really wants to legislate "protection" look at drivers......under 25....over 65.......cars over 10yrs old.
Maybe follow Cal. ....legislate fat in food.
Wait....how about legislating income? Poor folks comit more crimes than rich ones...Far more citizens are harmed by people who are poor than by pitbulls........outlaw young/poor/old/black/white/red......

don't give them any ideas; Singapore actually does ban cars over a certain age

 

[LoneWolf]

The city council is five people and they are all quite old. I've always thought about running for a seat myself; my uncle was on the council before being elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 2010, so he could give advice. I would be BY FAR the youngest person there.

They do stupid shit like this all the time.

I say go for it! You should have an experienced person in your corner in your Uncle. The more we have in local seats the better...never know you may be the 1 vote that stops these stupid laws from going into effect.

 

[pcosmar]

Cassiopeia says,

What is viscous animal?

I had trouble with this in Florida. I went through 3 Insurance Companies for my Homeowners Ins.
They wanted to call "Little Bit" a viscous animal. She was a 110lb Rott and not a viscous hair on her hide.

Fearful Idiots.

 

[Pericles]

Other dogs are often misidentified as pit bulls after an event happens. By far, the most dangerous animal is man anyway, especially those who seek power over others.

Too bad we can't pass a ban on dangerous politicians.

 

[pcosmar]

meh...just pitbulls...maybe alligators too..

See, that's how it goes.
First one thing,, then everything.

 

[Pericles]

See, that's how it goes.
First one thing,, then everything.

It is obvious that some people just don't like pets.

 

[cartemj06]

As a pitbull owner I want to say Two things, One Cesar Milan is not credible... Two Pitbulls are not dangerous.
Pitbulls are not a breed of dog, and If you PM me I might be able to get you in touch with a forum that I belong to for Pits and they will have serious information that you can use.

 

[Dr.3D]

Why not just let people be responsible for what their pet does? If the insurance company doesn't want to insure your home because you have a dog, then tell them not to give you insurance for dog bite and you can take care of that yourself.

Whatever happened to self responsibility?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

My sis's dog is about half pitbull/half lab. He's really tame. He loves everyone unless they act really aggressive toward him or steal his toys.

 

[Dr.3D]

My sis's dog is about half pitbull/half lab. He's really tame. He loves everyone unless they act really aggressive toward him or steal his toys.

Yeah, I have two Dobermans and one insurance company refused to insure my home. I told them I would have fired them anyway and found another company.

I'm responsible for what my dogs do, not some insurance company.

 

[papitosabe]

its easy to say have the owner be responsible, but when that pitbull mauls a child, then what? a fine, jailtime? what about the child?

 

[brandon]

My sister and a couple of her friends were mauled by a pack of pit bulls inside one of the girl's homes. All the girls were probably about 12 years old at the time. It was very bad - they all needed surgeries and hundreds of stitches, but luckily no one died or has any lasting injuries(just scars). Each girl got about 50k or so in settlement.


IMO we don't need a law banning dangerous animals, but the owners should face criminal charges of negligence and assault when the animals attack innocent people unprovoked.

 

[thehungarian]

its easy to say have the owner be responsible, but when that pitbull mauls a child, then what? a fine, jailtime? what about the child?

Owner liability is the only reasonable solution, imo. It's fairly easy to say "what about the child" in a situation like this, which hints that prohibition of certain things - in this case pit bulls - would result in more safety. Would banning firearms result in more safety?

Another problem is the media sensationalizing the issue and jumping on every story where a pit bull bites someone, making it out to be an epidemic.

 

[jkob]

In MY experience, pits are vicious dogs that insecure lowlifes get for the purposes of scaring the **** of people and making themselves look tough. We can't forget the despicable act of dog fighting either. That's not media hype, that's what I've personally observed. I understand that there are good pits and the owner plays a big role in their personality but you can't exactly ban the owners. A pit is extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, more so than any other dog IMO. A chihuahua and poodle or whatever might be more aggressive but I haven't ever heard of anybody being mauled to death by one. When it comes down to it, you do not have to inalienable right to intimidate people and put their well being at risk. I don't know if banning them is the answer but I will shed no tears if they were.

 

[noneedtoaggress]

What say you?

Petty tyrants.

 

[Tinnuhana]

Personally, I've never met an ill-mannered pit bull. But I'm sure there are some out there. In one study done on aggressive tendencies (to try to bite strangers), the top worst breeds were: 1) dachshunds 2)chihuahuas and 3)jack russells. They said 20-25% of the dachshunds observed tried to bite a stranger. Of course, that means that 75-80% don't.
On the other end of the spectrum were labs, retrievers, and rotties. Of course, rotties are big and dangerous-looking, so they are right up there for having themselves banned. A good resource for dealing with aggressive tendencies in individual dogs is the yahoogroup "agbeh" (for aggressive behaviors in dogs). It's a good place to lurk: lots of dog trainers on that group.
On another subject brought up by the OP, "exotic" animals: some people say that any animal domesticated for more than four generations is no longer wild. Lots could be said here, but I think it's about time to get domesticated skunks off that list. Of course, they want to scare everyone into thinking that skunks just get born with rabies, which is ridiculous. It's like saying native americans are born with alcoholism. I "rescued" an albino skunk from a local pet store and got her to a good home in one of the states where it's legal to have a pet skunk. She was a very sweet girl, once she got used to not living in a fish tank and eating cat food kibble (at the pet store).