Responsible Advocacy

They are beautiful, loving dogs
if not mistreated by ugly, mean human beings.
Senator Mark C.W. Montigny

* * * * *

Revised: Oct 1 2012, 18:37 GMT
Revised: Oct 1 2012, 19:51 GMT
Revised: Oct 7 2012, 18:29 GMT
Revised: Nov 20 2012; 03:59 GMT

The New Bedford (MA) Standard Times reported Sen Montigny's comment on August 2nd. In the days since his comment was published (from Aug 2 through today, Sept 28) the following people have been killed by pit bulls:

• Rebecca Carey, DeKalb County GA
• Charles Hagerman, Cook County IL
• Deborah Wilson Roberts, Jefferson County, AR
• James Hudson, Perquimans County NC
• Rayden Bruce, Johnson/Tarrant County TX
• Nellie Davis, Oklahoma County OK *

All of these canine homicides were committed by well-cared-for family pit bulls.

Advocates of fighting breeds claim that properly socialized and cared-for pit bulls will not attack; that if their owners are responsible the pit bulls will be beautiful, loving dogs, to use the Senator's words. Reality proves otherwise.

Reasonable voices must be heard on both sides of this contentious issue, but where are the reasonable advocates of fighting breeds? We might expect responsible advocacy from the highly paid career advocates who work for humane societies with multi-million dollar budgets (such as Ledy VanKavage, Kara Holmquist, Wayne Pacelle and others). If these executives make fantastic claims and fail to confront the truth about pit bulls they dishonor Nellie Davis and the dozens of other victims.

SRUV has made repeated appeals for animal welfare and humane CEOs and executives to act as responsible advocates. Among our requests:

• We have asked Senators Montigy and Jehlen of Massachusetts to explain why the advocates of fighting breeds provided input to the recent legislation, while the municipal leaders who are charged with protecting the public were denied a voice.
• We have asked Kara Holmquist, the Director of Advocacy of the MSPCA, to explain her claim that pit bulls show no more aggressive tendencies than Golden Retrievers. This is an outrage to reason.
• We have asked Pam Peebles, the Executive Director of the Thomas J O'Connor Foundation in Springfield, to back up her claim that a Golden Retriever attacked a woman who was subsequently hospitalized for three days. No proof has been forthcoming.
• We have made several requests for ANY CEO or executive of ANY major animal welfare or humane society to address the fact that pit bulls have killed, on average, 25 people a year over the last three years (2009-2011).**  We have asked them to explain why they continue to support pit bull adoptions despite this record of attacks. We asked them to avoid the conventional talking point responses such as abusive owners, which is an irresponsible, evasive response.

Not a single advocate of fighting breeds has responded to any of these requests.

We've come to expect irresponsible comments in the chatrooms and social media. The manifold  irresponsibility is on the part of the humane CEOs and executives. Not only do they establish or support policies which deflect responsibility away from the attacking dogs, but they avoid the personal responsibility their positions demand of them.

The advocates of fighting breeds must address the issue of pit bull attacks if they expect to be taken seriously by the public they serve.


* * * * *
Notes:

* For details see Fatal Pit Bull Attacks
** Statistics are from Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada. To view or download the current report click here.

News source for this post:
Funds for Animal Control Bill Secured by Sen Montigny

Other news sources:
Law bans breed-specific dog regulation, SouthCoast Today
Brockton police shoot charging pit bull, Enterprise News
State law trumps Worcester pit bull regs, Worcester Telegram
New state law could maul Lowell's pit bull ordinance, Lowell Sun
Mayor Menino: Animal-rights law . . . ., Boston Herald
Violent MA pit bulls now Schenectady's problem, Albany Times Union
Hundreds of pit bull attacks listed in Boston, Boston Herald
City Leaders Outraged, WBZ CBS

MA Legal Blogs:
Pit Bull Ordinances Nullified Under New State Law
The Law and Pit Bull Attacks and Pit Bull Ordinances

Research: Effectiveness of breed-specific legislation in decreasing the incidence of dog-bite injury hospitalisations in people in the Canadian province of Manitoba

Google News Today's pit bull attacks

A Place at the Table

They are beautiful, loving dogs if not mistreated by ugly, mean human beings
Senator Mark C.W. Montigny

* * * * *

Revised: Sept 27 2012; 15:36 GMT

When Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts signed the new animal control bill into law on August 2nd among those invited to the signing was Animal Control Officer Emanuel "Manny" Maciel. Also in attendance at the signing were Senator Mark C.W. Montigny, a champion of the legislation, and Kara Holmquist. This guest list offers important clues into the origins of the BSL prohibition in the new legislation.

Senator Montigny represents the 2nd Bristol-Plymouth district, which includes New Bedford where Manny Maciel serves as the Director of Animal Control. In 2006 Mr Maciel received an award from the the American Dog Owners Association (ADOA), an organization which has been lobbying against BSL for nearly 40 years. Mr Maciel also sits on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition (MAC), as does Ms Holmquist. In this capacity they represent an organization which advocates for fighting breeds with at least 16 pages of  pit bull resources.

Readers of SRUV will recall that Ms Holmquist appeared on TV last year to claim that pit bulls show no more aggressive behavior than Golden Retrievers. Mr Maciel's record as an ACO committed to animal welfare is beyond reproach, but he appears blissfully unaware that pit bulls have killed, on average, 25 people a year over the last three years, and the rate of disfiguring attacks is increasing exponentially. Nearly a third of all the pit bull disfigurements over the last 30 years have occurred in the last two years.*

Mr Maciel could easily inform himself of the havoc pit bulls are capable of; today's search of Google News returns the following stories:

• 3-month old child killed by family pit bull
• Pit bulls attack horses, killing one
• 73-year old woman recovering after pit bull attack
• School bus driver saves dog, owner from pit bull attack

 . . . . . and so on, with dozens of similar entries.

Legislation which serves the public must have responsible input from a broad spectrum of stakeholders. But why were the advocates of fighting breeds invited to participate in the process, and municipal leaders charged with protecting their citizens excluded? Why was the Animal Control Officer of New Bedford, an advocate of fighting breeds, given greater access to the process than the Mayors of major cities?

Senator Montigny commented on Maciel's presence:

Montigny said Maciel was invited to the signing ceremony in Ashland because of the input he had in the legislation. “I take all my advice from people like Manny,” Montigny said.

It is incumbent upon Senators Montigy and Jehlen to explain why the advocates of fighting breeds deserved a place at the table, but the Mayors did not.

* * * * *
Notes:

* Statistics are from Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here.

Massachusetts Animal Coalition: Pit Bull Resources

Legiislation
S.2192, An Act further regulating animal control

MA Sources:
Law bans breed-specific dog regulation, SouthCoast Today
Brockton police shoot charging pit bull, Enterprise News
State law trumps Worcester pit bull regs, Worcester Telegram
New state law could maul Lowell's pit bull ordinance, Lowell Sun
Mayor Menino: Animal-rights law . . . ., Boston Herald
Violent MA pit bulls now Schenectady's problem, Albany Times Union
Hundreds of pit bull attacks listed in Boston, Boston Herald
City Leaders Outraged, WBZ CBS

MA Legal Blogs:
Pit Bull Ordinances Nullified Under New State Law
The Law and Pit Bull Attacks and Pit Bull Ordinances

NJ Sources:
Laws on dangerous dogs confusing to towns, owners, attack victims (August 12)
The Record: Pet Sense (Aug 14)
Teaneck owner of pit bull agrees to muzzle, neuter his pet (Aug 15)

Research: Effectiveness of breed-specific legislation in decreasing the incidence of dog-bite injury hospitalisations in people in the Canadian province of Manitoba

Google News Today's pit bull attacks

Send comments and corrections to safeisland911 [@] gmail.com




.

A Secret, Shameful Act

It was a secret, shameful act
Protecting Dangerous Dogs

* * * * *

Revised: Sept 24, 2012; 20:09 GMT

When An Act further regulating Animal Control was signed into law by Gov Patrick on August 2nd Massachusetts became the thirteenth state to prohibit Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Advocates of fighting breeds from across the country have celebrated but municipal leaders in Massachusetts expressed shock at news of the signing.

There is no doubt that well-intentioned legislators signed off on this bill. Would they have passed it if they had known that in the 30 year period from 1982 through 2012 pit bulls (and close pit bull mixes) accounted for at least 217 deaths in the US and Canada, nearly 50% of the total canine homicides?* Certainly this would have given many of the legislators pause.

Questions about the inclusion of the anti-BSL provision have surfaced in the days since it was signed. A legislative history of the bill offers important clues.

• Sept 2010: S.1033 is introduced by Senator Patricia Jehlen
• March 19: (All subsequent dates are 2012) S.1033 is drafted as S.2184
• March 22: Senate adopts eight amendments and passes bill; drafted as S.2192
• March 26: Referred to the House committee on Ways and Means as House Bill 4266
• April 19: MSPCA announces that S.2192 has been merged with a domestic violence bill

Then, after three months will little or no action, in the final days of the legislative session:

• July 26: The House adopts amendments 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8; the Amendments page lists the text of all amendments except Amendment 8
• July 30: the bill is referred back to the Senate one day before the legislative session is scheduled to end -- actually the last full day of legislative activity; the Senate Calendar for July 30th makes no mention of S.2192; the Senate suspends normal procedural rules; the Senate concurs with the House amendments and enacts the bill.
• July 31; No formal calendar for the Senate; Legislative session ends
• August 2: S 2192 signed into law by Gov. Patrick.

Also on August 2nd, the website Stopbsl.org posts a bulletin with the following note:

The most recent amendment to S.2192 . . . contains two clauses that would prohibit BSL

We may never know with any degree of certainty the precise chronology of this bill, or who lobbied the sponsors. We may never know exactly when the anti-BSL provisions were written into the bill. The bill languished for months, years even, with little or no apparent action. Then suddenly it flew to the Governor's desk in a frenzy of activity in the final days of the session. What is clear is that the people who should have been stakeholders in this process, the municipalities charged with protecting their MVAC and their citizens, were excluded from the process.

Several cities continue to investigate remedies to S.2194, but the remedy must serve all the municipalities and citizens of the commonwealth. It is never to late for the public servants to correct an error.

* * * * *

* Statistics are from Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here.

Legiislation
S.2192, An Act further regulating animal control

Sources:
Brockton police shoot charging pit bull, Enterprise News
State law trumps Worcester pit bull regs, Worcester Telegram
New state law could maul Lowell's pit bull ordinance, Lowell Sun
Mayor Menino: Animal-rights law . . . ., Boston Herald
Violent MA pit bulls now Schenectady's problem, Albany Times Union
Hundreds of pit bull attacks listed in Boston, Boston Herald
City Leaders Outraged, WBZ CBS

MA Legal Blogs:
Pit Bull Ordinances Nullified Under New State Law
The Law and Pit Bull Attacks and Pit Bull Ordinances

Research:
Effectiveness of breed-specific legislation in decreasing the incidence of dog-bite injury hospitalisations in people in the Canadian province of Manitoba

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks in the US

Send comments and corrections to safeisland911 [at] gmail.com

Forthcoming post: A Place at the Table

Memphis in Bloomfield, NJ

Well over 100 animal lovers from around the state flocked to the Bloomfield Board of Health meeting held Thursday evening . . .

Baristanet

* * * * *

Revised: Sept 10, 2012; 14:25 GMT

The recent news out of Bloomfield provides a textbook lesson in how pit bull advocates use the social media to intimidate public officials and hijack the public process.

If experience can be our guide, the hundred or more people who flocked to the Board of Health meeting on August 16th are not animal lovers, animal advocates, or animal welfare activists. If the discussion had been about the mistreatment of laying hens, the poaching of elephants in Kenya, or the abuse of the bile bears in China, few of those in attendance on the 16th would have come.

The people who did come were, for the most part, single-issue pit bull activists, who journeyed to Bloomfield to support Memphis the pit bull.

The fiasco began when Memphis was picked up as a stray eight months before the hearing. The reason pit bulls comprise 40 - 75% of the population in animal shelters is because previous owners discover behavioral issues and abandon their dogs. Karen Lore, Director of Bloomfield Health & Human Services, acknowledged behavior problems in Memphis, which were confirmed by Pia Silvani of St Hubert's Animal Welfare Center. Silvani's evaluation was the last sound advice the city received, and at the insistence of the pit bull advocates it was soon ignored.

Silvani's evaluation should have been the end of the story, but instead it's where the plot spirals out of control. At this point the controversy might have been manageable, but officials made a series of miscalculations which allowed the advocates of fighting breeds to take control of the dialogue.

Bloomfield officials passed Memphis on to Jeff Coltenback, a pit bull advocate and FaceBook wallah. Within days Coltenback ignored the terms of his agreement with the city, who then requested the return of Memphis. Coltenback went to work on the social media, generating a frenzy of support for Memphis and, most likely, donations for his 501(c)3. The Aug 16th board meeting descended into farce.

The officials bowed under the pressure and agreed to yet another evaluation for Memphis. The Board of Health then made another critical mistake. They accepted Jim Crosby, apparently at the urging of Coltenback, as the evaluator. Crosby was, for a brief period, the Bay County (FL) Animal Control Director, but left under suspicious circumstances. Crosby is (or has been) a pit bull owner and is (or has been) associated with several special interest groups that strongly oppose pit bull regulations. He then disgraced himself with his posted comments in a public forum after the fatal pit bull attack on Mary Diana Bernal.¹

The situation deteriorated, if that's possible, at a second public forum on Sept 6th, when Coltenback served Ms Lore with a lawsuit, the first of three promised lawsuits against city officials. Ms Lore was manipulated into reading a letter of support for Memphis, which must have entertained the crowd. Crosby offered his evaluation of Memphis which, you guessed it, absolved the dog. The forum ended abruptly when audience members began to yell questions from their seats and police rushed to protect city officials.

At every step, the Bloomfield Board of Health relinquished control of the process to the advocates of fighting breeds. The likely outcome at this point is that Memphis, a pit bull with behavior issues, will be adopted as a family pet. If Memphis hurts someone, who will bear responsibility: Coltenback or the City?


* * * * *
Notes:
¹ See Jim Crosby comments on the death of Mary Bernal

Sources:
Police Intervene at Bloomfield Forum (NorthJersey.com)
Memphis Given Temporary Reprieve (Baristanet)


Statistics:
Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here. This page may also include information from Dogsbite and Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.

Information on euthanasia rates is from Pit bulls and Political Recklessness, by Merritt Clifton. Shelter  intake and euthanasia rates are published annually in the July/August edition of Animal People.

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks in the US

The DNA of a Pit Bull

It is complicated because there are so many different variants and cross-breeds that would require genetics testing for any bylaw to hold up in court.
Paul Stanton, Director of Planning and Development, White Rock BC

* * * * *

To: Paul Stanton
      Councillors & Managers of White Rock, BC

The recent attack on Emma-Leigh Cranford has renewed calls for tighter restrictions on pit bulls in BC. Communities in Canada and the US face a growing menace from fighting breeds, especially pit bulls. The advocates of fighting breeds use every tool at their disposal to deter communities from protecting their citizens with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Among their most effective tools is the threat of genetics testing for canines, which would hypothetically create a financial burden and legal logjam for communities.

This hypothetical burden will never materialize. Serious consideration of genetic testing peaked a couple years ago and has since faded.  How to Build a Dog (by Evan Ratliff in the National Geographic, Feb 2012) complicated matters further. Ratliff discusses recent research which shows that all dog breeds, from Great Danes to Dachshunds, share practically the same genetic makeup. According to Ratliff, the DNA of a pit bull is nearly similar to the DNA of a Yorkshire Terrier. DNA tests can identify some markers for certain breeds in mixed-breed dogs, but little else. Sara Chisnell-Voigt, the United Kennel Club's legal counsel, recently said she

. . .. does not know of any court that would accept a DNA test to prove a dog’s breed. Cory Smith, senior director of Pets for Life of the Humane Society of the United States, said DNA testing will never be 100 percent reliable. -- The Washington Post  (Aug 28) 

SRUV has previously written on the subject of breed identification, notably in our letter to the Animals and Society Institute.

* * * * *

Sources:

Miss Universe Canada joins call to restrict pit bulls
    (Vancouver Sun)
Dog-attack victims share universal bond 
   (Peace Arch News)
Pit bull attacks spur renewed call for ban 
   (Vancouver Sun)

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks in Canada
Google News: Today's pit bull attacks in the US

Pit Bulls Don't Exist

Revised: Sept 03, 2012; 20:21 GMT
Revised: Sept 11, 2012; 15:57 GMT

There is not a definition of pit bull, you don’t know what the dog is because there is no such thing as a pit bull.
Lesa Hoover, Attorney and vice president of government affairs
Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington

* * * * *

Dear Kate Alexander,

We are writing to correct several misrepresentations in your recent article, Experts say 'pit bulls' don't exist  (Washington Post, Aug 28).

The sentence at the top of this page includes several errors. Accurate definitions of pit bulls do exist. Over 350 municipalities are currently protected with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Most (if not all) of these ordinances include language which defines pit bulls, and many of these definitions have withstood court challenges. Numerous legal precedents include definitions of pit bulls, which Ms Hoover can find in our post Jabberwocky.

Another expert (Susan Reaver of Pits and Rotts for Life Rescue Inc) repeats the claim:

Unfortunately, they don’t realize that there is no such thing as a purebred pit bull.

Advocates of fighting breeds have  worked assiduously to confuse the issue of pit bull identification, but the United Kennel Club (UKC) would disagree with Ms Reaver. The UKC makes vast sums registering American Pit Bull Terriers. The American Kennel Club (AKC) also registers pit bulls, under the name American Staffordshire Terrier, as proven by the fact that numerous breeders cross-register the same dog in both clubs. Dogs with dual registration, as American Pit Bull Terriers from the UKC and American Staffordshire Terriers from the AKC, are highly prized.

The fact that crossbreeding exists among dogmen and backyard breeders of pit bulls is so common it is hardly worth mentioning; these crossbreeds represent the true fighting dogs. Perhaps we should give the last word on what to call these fighting dogs to the men and women who breed, crossbreed, and often fight them. Dogmen call these crossbreeds pit bulls and sometimes, bulldogs.

Your article claims to present the wisdom of experts, a word which often appears in the title of pit bull journalism.¹  We have noticed that many of the experts who are quoted are simply self-appointed advocates of fighting breeds, who gull the journalists into presenting their views.

Sincerely,
SRUV

* * * * *
Notes:
¹ See also Delise's Dark Shadows


Source:
Experts say pit bulls don't exist


Statistics:
Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here. This page may also include information from Dogsbite and Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.

Information on euthanasia rates is from Pit bulls and Political Recklessness, by Merritt Clifton. Shelter  intake and euthanasia rates are published annually in the July/August edition of Animal People.

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks in the US

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