Shuey’s Life

This really hit close to home for me. I don’t have a pit bull, but I have an American Bulldog. Things like this don’t just affect the owners of pits. These things affect all large “dangerous breed” dogs and their owners.

I fully agree with Cesar Millan, from National Geographic Channels, The Dog Whisperer . It’s not the dog’s fault…blame it on the owners. A dog lives in the moment and learns by example. I believe anyone interested in dogs in any way should check out this show. It’s on National Geographic Channel every friday night @ 8pm EST. You can check out a few video clips from the show and get a little more info on it here.

Don’t victimize a specific breed of dog just because owners teach them to do bad things. I’m not saying all pit bull owners are bad. The bad ones are those people out there training these dogs to fight, putting these dogs in horrible situations. These are the people who should be punished, not the dogs.

This hits home for me not only b/c I own a dog that is considered dangerous by many people, but also because a very close friend of ours has a gorgeous pit named Tiger. She’s also one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met. You can say she’s a dangerous dog b/c it’s in her blood, but the truth is, blood doesn’t matter. It’s all in how she was trained and raised from an early age.

If your father is a convicted serial killer, does that make you a cold blood murderer too?

The ATTS (American Temperament Test Society) did a recent study of different breeds of dogs and they’re temperament. 122 breeds were tested. Pit bulls rated as having a better temperament than many dogs we consider to be family friendly loving pets.

The test was conducted by putting dogs through different confrontational situations to see how they reacted. The ATTS states “Failure on any part of the test is recognized when a dog shows panic, strong avoidance without recovery or unprovoked aggression.”

Pit bulls received a passing rate of 83.4% after out of a total of 469 tests, passing 391 and failing 78

Beagles only scored a rating of 78.2%

Pomeranians only scored a rating of 75.0%, passing 24 tests and failing 8.

The one I was most interested in would be the American Bulldog, seeing as how I wanted to see how Brutus ranked. The American Bulldog was put through a total of 116 tests, passed 95, and failed 21 to receive a passing rating of 81.9%.

I was shocked to see that the Bulldog, also referred to as the English Bulldog, received an extremely low rating compared to most. The breed went through 120 tests, passing 82 and failing 38 for a passing score of 68.3%

Before I end up listing the results from every breed tested, click here to see how your family’s dog rated.

If you feel so inclined, take a few minutes, do a google about pit bulls. Better yet, google for pit bulls used in therapy work. You’ll might be surprised to see what you find. Then read this, and you decide for yourself if it’s right to punish all dogs in a particular breed. Dog bites occur among every breed of dog there is, and many each year, but why do pits, bulldogs, boxers, rottys, etc get labeled as dangerous breeds? It is simply because the dogs are ALL LARGE BREED dogs that are punished for just that. The larger the dog, the worse the bite…mostly fatal. Any dog can bite, the smaller ones just don’t how such a powerful bite.

“There is no scientific proof that genetics cause a breed of dog to be aggressive, vicious or dangerous.” - testimony from Standing Committee on amendments to the Dog Owners Liability Act. 2005

“Variability in behaviour has a wider range within a breed than between breeds. Within the discipline of psychobiology and animal behaviour there is no data from empirically supported studies, published in refereed scientific literature, to support the idea that one breed of dog is `vicious.’ The adult behaviour of a domestic dog is determined overwhelmingly by its experiential history, environmental management and training.” - Dr. Mary Lee Nitschke, Ph.D.

Now that many of the facts have been laid on the table, onto the story that started my entire rant…

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 21, 2005) — Oklahomans around the state were saddened when a 3-year-old child in Moore lost his arm after being viciously attacked by a pit bull terrier earlier this month.

Now the incident has moved a state lawmaker to author legislation that will effectually ban the pit bull breed in Oklahoma.

Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Moore, said that in the next legislative session he will introduce a bill – modeled after a municipal ordinance in Denver that has withstood two separate legal challenges – to get rid of the pit bull.

In researching the topic, Wesselhoft says he has reviewed over a thousand articles and legal cases related to pit bull attacks, which often end in death or mutilation of the victims.

“Many people who own pit bulls say that it’s other owners who train their pit bulls to be vicious – that there aren’t bad pit bulls, just bad pit bull owners,” Wesselhoft said. “But the fact is that these dogs are bred to fight until their prey is killed.”

Long before he became a legislator, Wesselhoft says he noticed news stories from around the country detailing how pit bull terriers had attacked and mauled people of all ages, including young children.

But when a pit bull attacked three-year-old Cody Yelton of Moore, who was supposedly trying to pet the animal, Wesselhoft believed the time had come to take action.

“Each time I read about one of these attacks or see the story on TV, I tell my wife Judy, ‘That dog ought to be outlawed,’” Wesselhoft said. “Now that it’s happened to one of my constituents, I’ve got to do this.

“I’ve talked to Cody’s parents and his grandparents. Cody’s grandmother told me that, after the attack, his arm looked like a chicken leg with all the meat eaten off. And that little three-year-old boy’s arm had to be amputated all the way up to his shoulder.”

According to data compiled by the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare Division, pit bulls and pit-type mixes accounted for approximately 15 percent of all dog bites within the corporate limits of Oklahoma City from 2001 to 2004.

Wesselhoft said his bill will amend existing state law, which outlines regulations for any “potentially dangerous dog,” meaning any dog that has inflicted damage to any person, animal, or other property when unprovoked.

The Denver Law

In response to over 20 documented pit bull attacks over a five-year period in the 1980s, the city of Denver adopted an ordinance in 1989 to protect citizens, particularly children, from pit bull attacks and to decrease the number of pit bulls owned by city residents.

Pit bull owners challenged the ordinance in court shortly after it was adopted. The case eventually made it all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court, which upheld the ordinance in 1991.

In April 2004, the state of Colorado passed a new law stating that municipalities could not impose breed-specific regulations on dog owners. The city of Denver temporarily suspended enforcement of the ordinance but proceeded to file suit against the state in order to resolve the matter.

In April of this year, a district judge ruled that the Denver ordinance was constitutional, and the city resumed enforcement of the law in May.

“Denver’s city ordinance has been tested on multiple levels of the Colorado state court system, and it has held up over time,” Wesselhoft said.

“The Denver law presents a good model for a law addressing these dangerous animals, which is why we’re using it as a clear starting point for a statewide law here in Oklahoma.”

The Proposed Oklahoma Law

Wesselhoft said the primary goal of his bill will be to require anyone who owns a pit bull terrier to house the animal in a structure that is “solid and impenetrable by a child.”

Pit bull owners would have to keep their dogs behind an eight-foot-high fence that also extends at least one foot into the ground, in order to prevent the dogs from digging out. Each owner would also need to display a sign reading “pit bull dog” on their property.

But Wesselhoft said the proposed bill will also include provisions designed to bring about an eventual ban of pit bull dogs in the state.

The grandfather clause contained in the bill would allow for the continuing existence of pit bulls currently in Oklahoma. However, pit bull owners would have to have the dogs spayed or neutered, and the animals would need regular rabies shots.

In addition, a pit bull owner would have to be age 21 or older and would be required to have a $100,000 liability insurance policy on every pit bull.

Also, each pit bull would have to be tattooed or otherwise marked when it is registered with the state. Owners would not be able to sell or transfer the dogs to other individuals in Oklahoma, excluding family members. And a person living in Oklahoma will not be able to bring in a new pit bull from out of state.

After those pit bulls that are allowed to remain in Oklahoma under the grandfather clause of the proposed bill die of old age, Wesselhoft said there should be very few pit bulls remaining in the state, if any.

“The bottom line is that, by getting rid of pit bulls in Oklahoma, we will be making our state safer for all Oklahomans, in particular our children and the elderly,” he said. “The attack on little Cody Yelton was absolutely tragic, and we don’t want that to happen again.”

Wesselhoft added that the parents of Cody Yelton were pleased when they learned that the proposed legislation would be named in honor of their son.

This has to be stopped.