This is an old story, but I think if you read it, you will see how dumb it is to ban a breed of dog for how it looks instead of judging the owners and dogs itself, not the breed. My comments will be in red and at the bottom. Enjoy.
Here’s a link to the full article
July 29, 2005
DENVER - A few weeks ago, two police cars and two animal control vehicles pulled up at the home of Stef’ny Steffan looking for her beloved 4-year-old pit bull, Xena. Seven officers hauled the animal off to the city shelter, putting her on death row.
Xena became an outlaw after Denver won a court fight and reinstated one of the toughest pit-bull bans in the nation. Since May, more than 380 dogs have been impounded and at least 260 destroyed — an average of more than three a day. <– That is just sad, 260 Destroyed just for looking like a Pitbull, that is just disgusting to me. Not sure what the number is today, but I can guarantee it’s a lot higher than 260 since this article was written almost 5 years ago.
Dog owners are in a panic. Some are using an underground railroad of sorts, sending their pets to live elsewhere or hiding them from authorities. City officials would not estimate how many people might be violating the ordinance.
Some owners, like Steffan, have won a reprieve for their pets with help from a rescue group. The group got Xena released by signing an affidavit stating that the animal would never return to Denver. The group took the dog to Mariah’s Promise in Divide, an animal sanctuary that has accepted more than three dozen pit bulls from Denver.
Many dogs living ‘underground’
For Steffan and her partner, Gina Black, leaving Xena 60 miles from home was a lousy option but the only one they had.
“It’s safer than animal control. Safer than keeping her underground — at least she’ll be able to play now,” Steffan said. “But she’ll miss us. We’re her pack.”
Denver is one of three major metropolitan areas, along with Miami and Cincinnati, to ban pit bulls, according to Glen Bui, vice president of the American Canine Foundation.
Pit bull typically describes three kinds of dogs — the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Denver’s ban applies to any dog that looks like a pit bull. The animal’s actual behavior does not matter. <–How stupid is that?
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David Zalubowski / AP
Xena, a 4-year-old pit bull, sits in the back of a vehicle as she is reunited with her owners Gina Black, Tom Hubbard and Stef’ny Steffen outside the Denver Animal Shelter June 23. Xena was released from the shelter to a pit bull rescue group in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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City Councilman Charlie Brown said that in his judgment, “pit bulls are trained to attack. They’re bred to do that.” <– Obviously and Idiot.
Critics of the ban use words like “annihilation” and “genocide,” and the city shelter has received e-mails likening animal control officers to Nazis. <– remember how that turned out?
“Breed bans are just a knee-jerk reaction to something that happened in the community,” Bui said. <– Agreed
Breed-specific ban criticized
Denver banned pit bulls in 1989 after dogs mauled a minister and killed a boy in separate attacks. The Legislature passed a law in 2004 that prohibited breed-specific bans, but the city sued and a judge ruled in April the law was an unconstitutional violation of local control.
Critics of the ordinance say that a blanket ban on an entire breed is misguided that the law should instead target irresponsible owners and all dangerous dogs.
“If anyone says one dog is more likely to kill — unless there’s a study out there that I haven’t seen — that’s not based on scientific data,” said Julie Gilchrist, a doctor at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who researches dog bites.
The CDC, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States examined 20 years of dog-bite data and concluded that pit bulls and Rottweilers caused the most deaths. <– That may be true, but since they base all their data on the looks of the dog, and not necessarily if it’s really a type of pit, I would have to say it’s hard to believe that all the data is accurate. Also, I didn’t see them put Rotts in there ban.
But the researchers also noted that fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog-bite injuries and that the number of bites per breed simply seems to rise with their popularity.
At the city shelter, pit bulls are cordoned off from other dogs in what has become death row. Nearly 100 pit bulls have been released to live outside the county. A nonresident must guarantee the dog will never return to Denver.
Sonya Dias, who is moving out of Denver because of the ban, said she was a little intimidated by her pit bull when she first saw him. But “when I said, ‘Hey little doggie,’ his whole body just started wagging.” Gryffindor is staying at Mariah’s Promise until Dias sells her home. <– I love the body wiggle that pits do, if you haven’t seen it, it’s really funny
“He’s been dangerous to a couple of pairs of shoes and some mini-blinds,” Dias said. “But otherwise he’s a jewel.” <– Nice answer 
My Thoughts on the article:
Ok, well, I believe people are entitled to their own opinion, but I think specific breed bans is just not right. I love my dog to death, and if someone came into my house and told me that because some pencil pusher decided to pass some law that they were allowed to come in my house, take my dog, and DESTROY him because he looks like a Pitbull to say the least would be horrible. My dog is like my child and how would you feel if someone came and took your child? You tell me, don’t you think that’s a bit ridiculous and unconstitutional? Doesn’t that sound like some other things in history? Oh, how about the Germans rounding up the Jews? Or, how about even here, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, We decided to round all the japanese up ( even the ones that looked Japanese) and lock em up, just for being a certain race or look? Does that sound right to you?
Think about it, especially if you are one of those so called supporters of the ban across the US, whether or not if you have owned one of these dogs or not, the underlying text there should make you sick.
I am sure someone out there will say they know someone who was attacked or killed by a Pit and this is how they justify killing and banning a “dog breed”, which is understandable; but I am sure there was a German out there somewhere that could say the same thing about a Jewish person killing or attacking someone they know, would it make it right to round all the Jews up and kill them off at the time of the Nazis? I don’t think so.
You may think my comparisons are extreme, but if you think about it, how are they really different? These dogs can not say how they feel on the subject right? So whether you like dogs or can’t stand them, the idea of killing these animals (because virtually sending them to the pound is a death sentence), is just wrong and someone needs to speak for these animals that can’t help being what they are.
Anyways, that’s my thoughts the “Denver” Breed Ban. Obviously the fact that they classify a dog based on looks is funny in itself.
