Thursday, August 26, 2010

Whitehall News Article Misses the Point

In December, an animal control officer in Whitehall noticed a loose dog outside of an apartment complex. She climbed over a 4' fence and approached the dog, who barked at her before being called back home. The dog had been let out to go potty. The woman identified the dog as a Pit Bull and in violation of the breed specific legislation that stipulates particular requirements for Pit Bull owners.

You can see a picture of the dog in the article. The dog is not a Pit Bull by any stretch of the imagination.

For the next eight months, this law-abiding couple had to endure appeal after appeal and litigation efforts to try and save their friendly, non-aggressive dog from being seized.

They recently won their case.

Eight wasted months, money wasted on litigation, all to try and disprove a negative - that the dog wasn't a Pit Bull...even though it's clear to everyone but the animal control officer that the dog is a mutt, and not of the Pit Bull variety.

The take home message was that Whitehall should revise it's identification of Pit Bulls.

Well no, Whitehall should revise it's Pit Bull restrictions. This is the reality of breed specific legislation - it criminalizes law-abiding citizens, kills dogs, and wastes money. How unfortunate that the news agency chose not to focus on that aspect of the story.

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