Posted on 07/20/2005 3:56:48 PM PDT by Redcitizen
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.
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.
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. But Denver's ban applies to any dog that looks like a pit bull. The animal's actual behavior does not matter.
City Councilman Charlie Brown said that in his judgment, "pit bulls are trained to attack. They're bred to do that."
Critics of the ban use words like "annihilation" and "genocide," and the city shelter has received e-mails likening animal control officers to Nazis.
"Breed bans are just a knee-jerk reaction to something that happened in the community," Bui said.
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.
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.
"He's been dangerous to a couple of pairs of shoes and some mini-blinds," Dias said. "But otherwise he's a jewel."
When I go to the beach {local beach allows dogs}, and I see a pitbull I strap on my fanny pack with my glock .40, just in case.
"He's scared of my cat"
Smart dog. Unless a dog knows how to fight a cat it's in for a face job. Saw a cat take on a big dog and the cat just tore the dog a new one. Between the fights the cat would in full view of dog sit down and start cleaning himself. That cat was having fun.
Why is it that almost every Pit owner has a shaved head and a bunch of flame tattoos on each arm?
When I go to the beach {local beach allows dogs}, and I see a pitbull I strap on my fanny pack with my glock .40, just in case.
Dogs do not have free will. They are slaves to instinct and creatures with a pack psychology. They are products of their breeding and upbringing.
Free Will is unique to humanity.
When my pit got out & down the street, she was rescued by a secretary who watched as a little old lady beat her (the dog) with a club.
Dog spent the rest of the day in a doctor's office playing with patients.
That little old lady must be the result of really crappy selective breeding!
PS: I'd consider changing buddys.
I wouldn't be too open about packin' a .40 around here. Someone will no doubt attribute it to the inadequacy of your genitalia.
Your story sounds made up. You are saying that a little old lady just happened to be walking down the street with a club??? what neighborhood do you live in?? And then a long comes a secretary who jumps in front of the little old lady with the club and says there.. there poor little pit bull come let me take you home??? aND THEN ON TOP OF ALL THAT YOU TAKE YOUR PIT TO A DOCTORS OFFICE WHO WELCOMES THE PIT IN AND EVERYONE IS PLAYING WITH IT. LOL, you are a VERY GOOD STORY TELLER!!!! Sorry my caps lock got stuck
Teddy Roosevelt was an idiot eh?
Nice Post.
With the exception of mitigating factors (the gun was stolen, the dog was tormented, the battery was in self defense....)
I don't disagree.
What I do not like, or tolerate, is the inflamed discourse that goes (went) before.
That, and the hollow victory (?) of destroying something that simply was in order to punish something that we are unable to even define.
PS: What IS your position of the offspring of crack heads, murderers, or rapists?? [Sorry, had to do it.]
Please post the source of your statistics.
"Dogs do not have free will. They are slaves to instinct and creatures with a pack psychology. They are products of their breeding and upbringing."
Tell that to the lady from Culpepper, VA that was torn to shreds in her own yard by three roving pitbulls this spring. The dogs were far away from their "territory" at the time.
Can you say "High prey drive" and "having fun"?
Furthermore, most of those killed were children. The dog is like an extension of its owner, hence the owner should liable for the deaths.
In Los Angeles, lots of plain folks carry something they think will help defend them (even in the really, really, nice areas).
Dumbo (not her name) was prancing down the street looking for someone to pet her - the secretary was/is real, she worked for the doctor, and no one knows or cares about the little old lady of crappy breeding.
Life is sometimes stranger than ideology.
No kidding...lol....blacks and hispanics commit disproportionate crime in comparison to non-hispanic whites and most asians.....can we ban blacks and hispanics too?
ludacris of course
this reminds me of what is an assault weapon..lol
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf
Conclusions: Although fatal attacks on humans appear to be a breed-specific problem (pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers), other breeds may bite and cause fatalities at higher rates.
They also point out that dogs bite and kill about 12 people a year, which, taking a big picture perspective, is negligible.
No. But every gun should get one free murder, every SUV should get one free rollover or run over, every pool should get one free drowning and every inflammatory speech should get one free riot.
But let's go into the homes of people and execute their dogs. It takes a village, and the village wants your dog's head. After all, we need to take things from you on behalf of the common good. Hillary said so.
APf
Whine about the children and the lady who got her face ripped off while she was out jogging in the central part of town by a pair that got loose five miles away. Only a quick acting, heroic pickup driver stopped and bashed them with a shovel and got her into the safety of his truck and race her to the hospital.
We've had many similar incidents. The police have shot two in the last couple of years who were attacking them.
I'm terrified of them myself and afraid to go out walking any more. I used to be more afraid of being grabbed by a rapist. Now I'm afraid of both, but more of visous dogs on the loose because that can happen right on my street. I'm afraid to go to the park and walk the loop which starts one block from my house.
Who should have more rights, people or dogs?
I always hesitate to read these pit bull threads. I hate to see generally well grounded freepers turn into a bunch of statists.. "Let's band together and take away their dogs for the common good".
It may not be exactly analogous guns, but it's the same mindset of the gun grabbers. - Since we are scared of guns you can't have them.. and just like the gun grabbers the pit bull grabbers can't be reasoned with.
dan.
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