Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Pit bull law *tear*

I received this email today from a fellow named Cory and I used his header as the title of this post. He touched my heart as you can feel the compassion he feels and also the nightmare he is going through because of this ridicules Ontario Pit bull Ban. This is not unusual for the owners of Bullies in Ontario, or should I say, the responsible ones.

He feels his age and clothing style is what people are discriminating about him, but I assured him we are all victims to the racial profiling because of the breeds of dogs we have chosen due to the government and the media hype.

He has given me permission to post his email on my blog along with this precious Amstaff, Peaches.


Hi my name is Cory,

I live in Perth, Ontario (pop. 5500)

I’m the very proud owner of a 8 month old, AmStaff (I now hate the term 'pit bull' with a passion)

I was fortunate enough to get her before the ban in Ontario she is my darling angel and i treat her like my child.

I find myself awake at nights with a burning fire inside of me trying to make sense of all this madness and racial profiling of what i see to be the overall greatest breed of dog ever created.

In my town many dog owners AmStaff’sS, APBT's, Staffordshire Terriers, Bullmastiffs still roam the streets with no muzzles and seem to be so far left alone. Yet because of my age (24), and because of my appearance (baggy clothing), I am frequently warned to keep my dog muzzled and leashed "or else". I do abide strictly to this but still it makes me sick.

I can’t sleep tonight because I’m so upset reading page after page of dog owners that love their Bully’s like I love mine and I feel like we are all being ignored. All I can think about is how many peoples lives have been effected for the better by these amazing breeds of dogs in comparison to the few highly publicized occasions of poorly trained dogs (and probably from bad blood lines, with negligent owners) actually harming someone.

I’ve written this too you because you seem to be active in the pursuit of fairness, and because I would like some advice on what I can do, I’ve written a letter to the ombudsman of Ontario but I feel like that’s probably not going to accomplish much. If you need any help or have any ideas please let me know I am dedicated to this species and will do everything in my power to ensure that they do not vanish.

Thank you for your time.

Cory



Cory and Peaches

I emailed him in ways how he can help and I’m going to also add this here as perhaps many of you would like to help, but not sure of how.

1. Promote your Bully Breeds out in public by showing a positive image of the breeds.

2. Be responsible at all times and talk to anyone you can, young or old about the positive image of the Bullies. Bystanders often listen to what you are telling others and often you could give them something to think about.

3. Join at least one of the Banned Aid Coalition Groups and if possible, be active in them. If you are unable, the yearly fees also go towards helping with the Legal Fund that we are up against.

4. If you are able to blog or create a web site, there are never enough point of views to reach people all over the world and you just might touch one of them, if not more.

5. Buy the Bully articles that are sold on the net as profits also go towards the Legal Challenge.

6. Educate yourself to the Pit bull Law, no matter how vague it is and ridicules. It’s law right now and we must be abiding citizens. It also helps when others ask you questions that they are not aware of.

7. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! We may not have many, but the couple that we do have is worth knowing about. Our dogs and us do not have to take harassment or physical abuse because we own a breed of dog that some may not agree with.

3 comments:

Conners said...

I couldn't agree with you more about the breed banning. BSL has got to be fought and wiped out or we could end up like Italy that has more than 92 on their list of banned dogs.
As to our dogs being sterilized, I personally support spay/neutering since I neither am a professional breeder or have a show dog.
Reputable Professional Breeders have a reputation to uphold and their dogs are in their best interest. The truth is, they know what they are doing where as there are far too many back yard breeders and puppy mills that are breeding irresponsibly for the sake of greed.
How many of these dogs have not been in top form and in many circumstances inner bred in bad conditions? There's already too many dogs in shelters looking for forever homes and statistics show that an unaltered male upon maturity is more prone to aggression and bites.
If your purpose is to have a pet companion, I personally don't object one bit to having my dog(s), cat(s) sterilized.
I prefer to have that as an option, but at the same time, the irresponsible owners are the ones that won't dish out the money for their animals (sterialized, vaccinations, etc) and then allow them to run free and not follow laws or bylaws.
In my city alone, there are less than 1/2 the bullies registered from last year and that is without the increase of puppies born throughout the year. If that's the case, how many people are not following the law at the risk of their dogs death at stake along with the large fines and/or jail time.
I love Shasta too much to risk her life over whether I believe the law is right or wrong.

Amstaffie said...

I'm glad to see that there are more and more people out there standing up for their rights to own a beloved bully.

Bullies unite!

Conners said...

ave you got Storm in Dogster? We have a BSL TASK FORCE GROUP that you and Storm could really help the cause.
I'll email you the details and if you get into Dogster I'll invite you.