City County Council passes dangerous dog ordinance
Now THIS is the more along the right way of thinking, other than tethering! But it does make some great points. An extensive educational program should also be brought into focus, as many people and children are victims because of lack of knowledge.
Little Johnny doesn't understand he can't play with the strangers dog down the street like he does his own dog.
Many owners, especially first time owners don't realize the necessities needed for the different breeds and the types of excerise needed. Many believe a pup will learn on their own and turn out like Aunt Sally's dog, only as the pup starts to destroy furnature, and clothes, they assume they have a stupid dog. Once the dog has problems from lack of learning, many get taken down a country road and dropped off.
Education is IMPORTANT and people need to learn how to maintain, contain and train their dogs as well as parents and parents teaching their children, but it is a good start.
You can find this article in the Indianapolis Eyewitness News.
City County Council passes dangerous dog ordinance
Nov 14, 2006 11:34 AM EST
Mary Milz/Eyewitness News
At one time the proposal was aimed at specific breeds. That was changed.
A pit bull attack left Amaya Hess disfigured and near death.
The vote to pass the proposal was unanimous.
Indianapolis - After months of debate, Indianapolis has a new dangerous dog ordinance. The City County Council passed it unanimously Monday night following about 20 minutes of discussion.
The new law defines a dangerous dog based on its behavior, not its breed. A dog is defined as dangerous if it injures or chases someone in a menacing way or attacks another animal.
The ordinance requires such dogs to be properly confined, limits ownership to two and prohibits the tethering of any dog between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Pet owners who violate the ordinance face initial fines of $500 and $1,000 for a second offense.
"This puts the accountability on the pet owner," said Councilor Ron Gibson.
The ordinance was triggered by the near-fatal mauling of little Amaya Hess, attacked by a pit bull in May. While some called for banning pit bulls, others said the problem wasn't bad dogs, but bad owners. The ordinance was amended several times before Monday's final vote.
"We had compromise after compromise after compromise," said Councilor Rozelle Boyd.
Leslie Fatum, Administrator of Indianapolis Animal Care and Control said she was pleased with the ordinance, but added her agency would need "more people and more resources" to enforce it and to staff the new appeals process set up for owners.
The new law takes effect January 1, 2007
3 comments:
Here's something we all should find a little uplifting - I got it off Diane Jessups blog:
"11.18.06: Please check this out:
Hi all,
Check it out!
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox
Then click the Morning News tab on the upper right side of the page and click on "Outdoor Outlook: Dog Attacks, Part 1" and watch Gene Fox's coverage of the issue, including interviews with JC Burcham, Nick Swearngin, and Ledy VanKavage.
Forwarding this to interested parties would be helpful because Gene tells me that the more interest that is generated in the site, the better his chances are to get approval to do more in the way of covering this topic.
Great job Gene!
All the best,
Tad B. Coles, DVM
President - Kansas City Veterinary Medical Association"
it ain't easy being a dog these days. all these well meaning humans think they can change thousands of years of evolution with a few hours of training.
Thanks for the comments Sharon and Ruby. From a human to a dogs point of view huh? LOL
Ratial profiling of breeds have got to stop. Just like in the newscast, labs were number one biters, but they are also the most popular...and that's known from past years of popular breeds.
Who knows, will it be the laberdoodle next?
Even you Ruby would have to agree the the bull breeds were never bred for human aggression and was not tolerated even from the start. That cost the dog an instant bullet to the brain.
Just as a police dog needs to be trained to attack, so do other breeds. That or being abused, neglected, and all the other tactics the undesireables use to make their dogs aggressive, plus breeding for agressiveness.
Would Shasta attack? I think if she saw I was being harmed by an assailant she would. What loyal dog doesn't try to save their owners?
Could she harm a child? She's a dog. She has teeth and I wouldn't be responsible to test the waters and leave her alone with a child to find out what her limits are or allow an accident to happen. I value the child and my dog too much for that.
Do I fear her around young children? NO! Because I'm there supervising and if I see a child doing something that needs correcting, I'll say so, even if that would not stress out Shasta particularly, correction is needed for the childs sake as another dog may not tolerate it.
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