Stop Senath City Pit Bull Ban

Dear Senath City Council,

    It has come to my attention of a proposal that is on the table to ban all Pit Bull and Pit Bull mix breeds from the Senath City Limits.  I would like to ask for a few minutes of your time to hear out this proposal.  I think this will be very enlightening, and will serve to solve the many problems we all seek.   
    
    I conducted a search to find statistics on dog bites in Senath Missouri.  My search came back with nothing.  No press, nothing. www.Dogbitelaw.com  was the only largely and publicly compiled data available stating on it's website a list of dog bites by state ranking...and Missouri did not even make the list!
 
    I just read a disturbing article containing some dog bite statistics.  In Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada September 1982 to November 13, 2006 , by Merritt Clifton, Clifton suggests that whopping 1110 attacks from 1982 to 2006 were from the Pit Bull Terrier breed alone.  These attacks account for all attacks where bodily harm has taken place to a human, but not death.  495 were child victims, 397 were adult victims, where 104 led to death, and 608 were maimings.  What I find interesting is what happens in the following columns of his report.  Here I have taken and placed a snapshot for your viewing...
 
    Upon closer examination of the latter columns, and figures we see that the remaining Pit Bull breed mixes are stated with dubious numbers, leaving in question the validity of even the first and highest of the numbers which are burdened on Pit Bull Terrier purebreds.  How is it possible that the number of Purebred Pit Bull attacks is so high, but the number of attacks with Pit mixes is so low.  Logically speaking of course, this makes no sense. Clifton states that he takes these numbers from ANIMAL PEOPLE  and Press Accounts "of clearly identified breed type or ancestry".    But what I would like to know is, what type of breed identification was conducted to make these types of judgments? Are these conducted by DNA tests to "clearly" identify the types of breeds in this list?  Or is one just going by sight alone?  There are so many dogs that can be mistaken for a Pit Bull.  And one site proves it.  Pit Bull Rescue Central, www.pbrc.net, has a nifty little flash loading web page that asks you to try to identify the pit bull in a series of 10 pictures of dogs at a time.  The results are staggering.  If you don't believe me, just go here and try it yourself: http://www.pbrc.net/poppysplace/games/AdultFindabull/findpitbull_v4.html

    According to PBRC, Breeds that can be confused as Pit Bulls by the way they look are, but not limited to:
Dogo Argentino
Tosa Inu
Bull Mastiff
Boxer
Dogue de Bordeau
Fila Brasileirlo
Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog
Presa Canario
Bull Terrier
Labrador Retriever
Rhodesian Ridgeback
Catahoula Leopard Dog
Jack Russell Terrier
English Bulldog
American Bulldog
French Bulldog
Black Mouth Curr
Cane Corso
Patterdale Terrier


I have included some of the pictures above for your convenience:










    Here we have 19 breeds of dogs that I have listed, that if not being identified by true and fair DNA tests, could be legitimately confused for a Pit bull at face value, even by trained staff, as mixes become even more difficult to discern.  And I am sure there could be more. 6 of which we know for sure are being penalized just for having the words  "bulldog" or "bull Terrier" in their names.   

    What is truly frightening though is the fact that for all these dogs, that could be confused for a genuine full bred Pit Bull Terrier... It has to make you wonder if that is how the number of 1110 I spoke about earlier came to be so high, and mysteriously the mix breeds came to be so low.  If this is the case, then, a full bred Pit Bull Terrier is no more dangerous than any other dog that has been attacking people for the last 30 years! Www.dogbitelaw.com States, "Since 1975, fatal attacks have been attributed to dogs from at least 30 breeds."

And if this is the case, then a lot of dogs are being punished unnecessarily. 

    It is true, and I will not deny the fact that we have an epidemic in this country that needs to be addressed.  This epidemic is and has been targeted at the Pit bull breed, whether successfully so, or not (as we have just seen).  This epidemic, spans across all socio-economic borders as we see in the most recent Michael Vic case.  This epidemic is Dog Fighting. 

    This epidemic is an animal rights, animal abuse issue.  This epidemic is hurting millions of dogs, and owners alike as it spans many breeds, as we have just seen.  The CDC and Clifton both agree.  Clifton goes on to write at this same website (http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html):
 
"In all fairness, therefore, it must be noted that:

    * Any dog, treated harshly or trained to attack, may bite a person. Any dog can be turned into a dangerous dog. The owner or handler most often is responsible for making a dog into something dangerous.

   * An irresponsible owner or dog handler might create a situation that places another person in danger by a dog, without the dog itself being dangerous, as in the case of the Pomeranian that killed the infant (see above).

    * Any individual dog may be a good, loving pet, even though its breed is considered to be potentially dangerous. A responsible owner can win the love and respect of a dog, no matter its breed. One cannot look at an individual dog, recognize its breed, and then state whether or not it is going to attack."


    The CDC  reported, back in 1997, how to effectively fix this epidemic, but no one was listening.  And many good people and animal alike have suffered and had to pay a hefty price since then.  In their May 30, 1997 Edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,(p.466) they stated,

    "Animal control at the community level. Animal-control programs should be supported, and laws for regulating dangerous or vicious dogs should be promulgated and enforced vigorously (8). For example, in this report, 30% of DBRF's resulted from groups of owned dogs that were free roaming off the owner's property. Some of these deaths might have been prevented through more stringent animal-control laws and enforcement. Although some breeds were disproportionately represented in the fatal attacks described in this report, the representation of breeds changes over time (Table 1). As a result, targeting a specific breed may be unproductive; a more effective approach may be to target chronically irresponsible dog owners (9).

Bite reporting. Evaluation of prevention efforts requires improved surveillance for dog bites. Dog bites should be reported as required by local or state ordinances, and reports of such incidents should include information about the circumstances of the bite; ownership, breed, sex, age, spay/neuter status, and history of prior aggression of the animal; and the nature of restraint before the bite incident. Dogs provide many health and social benefits."

According to the CDC, we are doing 2 things wrong,

We ARE
 
    TARGETING A SPECIFIC BREED, which may be "unproductive"

And we are NOT

    TARGETING THE CHRONICALLY IRRESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS, which is "a more effective approach"

    I propose to you, WE, the responsible dog owners, propose to you now, to Stop Breed Specific Legislation, and make animal aggression and abuse more severe offenses.  When fighting rings are busted, let it be a felony, not a slap on the wrist.  When, a dog is found abused and beaten, let it be a crime that does hard time.  Are you laughing yet?  Do you want to see the animals stop biting the human hand, then stop the human hands that are allowed to push these animals - of all breeds into a corner. It is their natural condition, as is any.  They have no mouth to speak back, so they bite.  Until you treat this as the serious matter that this has now become, you will never stop this epidemic, not without killing all innocent animals off first.  Because after you wipe out what ever is left of the Pit Bull Breed, and all of the look a likes, the beasts of the human race will find another innocent animal to do their bidding.  You know it's true, PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.