Ok, so even in our wildest dreams we aren’t foreseeing an end to all Breed Discriminatory Legislation in 2012. But it’s only mid-January and there are already some exciting bills stirring in a few states for pit bull type dogs.

Ohio

The most widely discussed and the furthest along is Ohio House Bill 14. HB 14 would remove dogs known as “pit bulls” from the classification of “vicious dog” in state law. As the law currently stands, a “vicious dog” is one that has killed another dog or caused serious injury to a person without provocation, or is generally thought to be a “pit bull” type dog. The proposed new definition of a “vicious dog” would be one that has caused serious injury to a person.

What we love about these changes is not only the removal of breed or assumed breed from the classification system, but the clear link between action and consequence — no longer will a dog be doomed simply based on its appearance. Rather, by practicing responsible pet guardianship, owners will, for the most part, be able to keep their dogs off the dog warden’s radar.

However, it’s important to note that HB 14 won’t be an end-all to breed discrimination in Ohio. Pit bull type dogs will no longer be considered vicious at the state level simply based on their appearance, but counties and cities that already have breed-discriminatory legislation on the books — and there are many in Ohio — will not be forced to reverse their breed bans. It is our hope that over time cities and counties follow the lead of the state and enact more effective and logical dangerous dog laws, but HB 14 is only a start. But a good one!

HB 14 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously this week, and heads to a vote on the full Senate floor within a week — then off to the Governor for signature. For more on HB 14, check out this story from the Toledo Blade.

Florida

Along a similar vein, late 2011 saw the introduction of Florida House Bill 997 / Senate Bill 1322. Florida law — like Texas law — prohibits municipalities from passing legislation that discriminates against dogs based on breed or appearance, but a loophole has allowed Miami/Dade County to continue to discriminate against pit bulls for the past 20 years. The state law grandfathers in any breed-discriminatory laws put in place before 1990 — like Miami’s.

Miami’s BDL has been the source of plenty of media coverage thanks to our celebrity athlete crush Mark Buehrle, a superstar pitcher just signed by the Miami Marlins. Due to Miami’s dog rules, Buehrle and his family — including his three vizslas and a pit bull type dog named Slater — bought a house in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County (instead of in the Miami area) when Buehrle signed his $58 million, four-year contract. Buehrle has been plenty vocal in his feelings about Miami’s ban on pit bull type dogs: “It’s kind of ridiculous that because of the way a dog looks, people will ban it,’’ he told a prominent newspaper, “every kind of dog has good and bad, and that depends on the handlers.”

HB 997 would remove the grandfather clause, making it unlawful for any municipality in Florida — including Miami — to discriminate against dogs based on breed type or appearance. The bill was just introduced in the last week of 2011, and has not had a hearing set. For more on HB 997, check this link.

Indiana

Indiana is making moves for pit bull type dogs as well, although not through amendments to any rules about breed discrimination. In Indiana, it is currently a Class A misdemeanor to attend an organized dog fight. This is punishable by no more than one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. The new Senate Bill 0011 would up the crime to a Class D felony — equal to actual participation in the dog fight, and punishable by three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

There are a number of reasons that upping the penalty for attendance at a dog fight is critical: first, it is often difficult to determine and prove which attendees are the actual handlers of dogs being forced to fight; and second, most revenue generated through dog fighting is raised in attendance fees — by making penalities for attendance more prohibitive, it is the hope that dog fighting will lose popularity when revenues go down. By making attendance at a dog fight a felony, the state will be sending a strong, positive message to Indiana residents.

SB 11 was approved yesterday by the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee, and moves to a full Senate vote soon. More info on SB 11 can be found here.

But in the meantime, we were fighting our own parallel case right here in Texas. A San Antonio family contacted Love-A-Bull in mid-December after their landlord refused the family’s pet deposit and threatened to evict them due to their pit bull type service dog’s breed.  The Buentellos have an eight-year old child with Autism/PDD, and a four-year old that recently had both of his lower legs amputated through the knee as the result of birth deformity/abnormality.  Additionally, the father has limited mobility due to cancer, which has left him with only one hip.

The more senior dog — 12 years old — has been working with the family for years, and the younger — two years old — is currently a service-dog-in-training, assisting the boys in their mobility and physical and emotional security.

Even with confirmation from the family’s pediatrician and dog trainer stating that the family indeed benefits from these animals as service dogs, the landlord was insisting on further documentation — documentation that is not required by law under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Unfortunately, this situation is all too common. Many property owners and managers are not aware of their tenants’ rights under ADA, and too many families are made to feel threatened or discriminated against because of this lack of understanding of the law. When families lack the information or resources to defend themselves and their rights, tragedy can result. As we have seen in Aurelia, Iowa, this occurs not only at the individual housing level, but at the municipal level as well.

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending for the Buentellos. After numerous exchanges with the property manager’s representative lawyer, Love-A-Bull was able to secure permission for the Buentellos to stay in their housing and keep their dogs.

It is our hope that with time, discrimination against service dogs — and all dogs — based on breed will be a thing of the past. But in the meantime, we are thrilled to have helped one brave family achieve a victory that made their Christmas season a little bit sweeter.

Pit Bull Confidential is a short film produced by Linda Gunter. The film explores the side of adopting America’s dog through interviews with Washington Animal Rescue League CEO Dr. Gary Weitzman, Julie Paez of The Big Bad Woof, and pit bull adopters.

Click on the photo below to watch this short film…

Linda is self-described as a parent, partner, environmentalist, animal lover, and burgeoning short filmmaker. The video was intriguing, so I asked her for a brief Q&A.

Q&A with Linda Gunter

Naturally the first question, why did you decide to create this video? And why about pit bulls?
I noticed that the city/county shelters especially were full of pit bull mixes and pit bulls – I periodically drop in on shelters if I am in the area; I guess this is some form of masochism since then I want to take half of them home! But it’s also to inform myself more about shelter challenges. I also learned, in volunteering at my local shelter, that pits are generally really sweet-natured people dogs. So I looked on YouTube to see if there was a short video dispelling some of the many myths about pit bulls. While I found lots of mainly raw footage about people’s sweet pit bulls, I could not find an informational piece. So I decided to make the video. It’s my first video so it was also exciting to finally master the technology and accomplish a longstanding goal to make a short documentary. The main purpose was to try to encourage more people to consider adopting pit bulls when choosing a rescue dog and to answer some of the concerns they may have because of the adverse publicity.

How did you choose who to work with on the project?
I am a volunteer at the Washington Animal Rescue League – and two of our animals were adopted from there, a dog and a cat. So it was the logical place to start. They were also then able to put me in touch with successful pit bull adopters. I also knew that our local petfood store owners had a pit bull (Yaya). Originally, I was going to diversify more and shoot more “at home” footage and at city shelters, but expediency eventually decided the focus on WARL.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for pit bull type dogs?
The misconception that they are “bad” dogs that can sometimes be trained to be nice, whereas the reverse is obviously true and unfortunately the so-called pit bull problem is actually a bad people problem. So people are afraid to adopt pit bulls because all they hear about the breed is related to fighting rings so the assumption is that they are dangerous as a breed which is not the case. Consequently, pit bulls languish needlessly in shelters and of course many are euthanized.

How did you become involved in animal welfare?
I’ve been interested in this area since childhood (I won a prize at 6 for filling my doll pram with stuffed toy animals and making it a charity fundraiser for the RSPCA in the UK!) At about 9, I dragged my mother off to an animal rescue sanctuary – only to be crushed that the owner, who I idolized, was a rather bossy old battleaxe who clearly didn’t like kids! Undeterred, I’ve been a would-be animal sanctuary owner ever since. This has not turned out to be what I do, but I have volunteered on and off over the years at a couple of shelters. It’s a passion but not a profession for me, although I probably wouldn’t turn down the right offer in the field!

What is your relationship with the Washington Animal Rescue League?
I am a volunteer there. I help with the animals but mainly I have been making short videos on individual animals (mostly cats) that they place on the animals’ web site bios to help get them adopted. This has proven remarkably successful. I think all the cats with videos were adopted by people who “fell in love” watching the video. One person flew in from Puerto Rico to adopt one of the video cats!

How many animals do you have? How did they end up in your life?
Currently we have five animals in our family – two dogs and three cats. They are all rescues. (Our two children are also adopted). We also tried fostering a really sweet older cat, Agnes, but unfortunately my resident female cat decided to make her life miserable, so we had to stop which was sad for all of us. (She’s still on Petfinder in case you want to put a plug in for her!) There was a guppy until recently…)

So what’s your regular occupation? ‘Real job’ as we like to call it, since we know most of us do this in our theoretical ‘free time.’
I am an anti-nuclear activist. I founded a group called Beyond Nuclear and we work to end nuclear power and promote renewable energy. In fact, Pit Bull Confidential, which I had to do in what passes for my “spare time” was interrupted by the March 11, 2011 Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan so I had to delay shooting and editing for months because I had absolutely no free time outside of my real work.

What do you have planned for the future?
I am hoping to do a piece on why you should adopt an older cat. The “older” concept seems to start quite young – at 8 or so! But in shelters, the kitties over 8 linger, especially during kitten season when they are constantly passed over. It’s the reason we fostered Agnes, and while we had her it was depressing how little interest there was in an 8-year old cat who was sweet as can be. It’s a difficult story line to find substance for so I still need to map it out a bit and then clear some “free” time to make it. I shot some footage already of a wonderful “older” cat at WARL who was quite the comedian. So hopefully there won’t be any more nuclear catastrophes for a while (or ever, actually!) and I can get started soon. Another option would be to make Pit Bull Confidential, Part 2. There are a few owners and their dogs it would be fun to put on tape. I think seeing a dog in the home environment might actually be the best advertisement of all. So if you have suggestions for aspects I didn’t cover this time, let me know! I am also pondering whether I can get a celebrity owner to participate in Part 2, which might get both films a higher viewership. I was actually a bit disappointed that this piece did not get circulated as widely as I’d hoped.

The 5- or 6-year-old canine’s original caretaker abandoned her, but Shaka’s natural love of playing fetch caught the eye of a pit-bull advocate.

The Washougal Police Department in Washington soon put her to work until budget shortfalls in 2010 cut her position there. Shaka has served in the Milwaukie Police Department for several months.

Police officer Billy Wells certified Shaka through the Oregon City-based Oregon Police Canine Association. Mayor Jeremy Ferguson supports the canine officer.

“I’m really excited to see that new pit bull as a member of our team, and the price was a smoking-hot deal since we got the dog fully trained,” Ferguson said.

Other pit bulls in law enforcement:

San Diego District K-9 Unit | Taylor

U.S. Customs | Popsicle

Washington State Patrol | Moto

A previous version of this post misidentified the city in which Shaka works.

However, recently, Texas has seen an upswing in cries for breed-specific legislation, including an anti-pit bull rally in Tyler and a petition in Rusk County / Jacksonville calling for statewide discrimination against “pit bull” owners that has garnered hundreds of signatures. The last Texas legislative session also saw an attempt to get legislation passed against “pit bull” owners.

We need your help to stop this discrimination before it starts!

Love-A-Bull is starting a petition which directs our state lawmakers to:

• Keep intact the current state law that prohibits breed-discriminatory legislation
• Refuse to propose or support legislation which would discriminate against people based on a dog’s  breed or physical appearance

Please help us gather signatures for the petition, which will be presented to Texas state legislators in January 2010, and again at the start of the 2011 Legislative Session.

Download the petition text and signature page now! (2 PDF Docs)
OR
Download the petition text (Word Doc) and signature page (Excel) now!

Instructions:

1. Download and print out ONE (1) copy of the petition text.
2. Download and print out as many of the signature pages as you want.
3. Gather signatures from people who are eligible to vote in Texas. (They do not have to be registered voters.)
4. Make a copy of the signature pages for your records if you wish.
5. Send the original signature pages to Love-A-Bull
   Mail to: P.O. Box 18792, Austin, TX 78760

The text of the petition is as follows:

A Petition Directing the Members of the Texas Legislature to Oppose Discriminatory Legislation Against Dog Owners Based on a Dog’s Breed, Type, or Appearance

To be presented to the members of the Texas House and Senate on January 31, 2010 and at the start of the 2011 Legislative Session

Whereas we recognize that each and every dog is an individual in temperament and behavior, and physical appearance does not determine behavior;

Whereas all dogs have the potential to do serious or lethal harm, and this is not dictated solely by a dog’s physical appearance but by a number of complex circumstances;

Whereas dog owners should be held strictly liable for the actions of their dogs regardless of the dog’s physical appearance, so that both dog owners and victims of irresponsible dog owners are provided equal rights and restitutions;

Whereas breed-specific or breed-discriminatory legislation is unethical and inhumane, and has been shown to be financially unsupportable, a detriment to public safety, and a legal quagmire;

Whereas non-breed-specific or non-discriminatory laws provide public safety in an effective, humane, legal, equitable, and moral way;

The undersigned citizens of Texas do hereby direct the members of the state legislature to do the following:

1. Keep intact Texas Health and Safety Code 822.047, which prohibits municipalities from declaring dogs dangerous based solely on breed.
2. Refuse to vote for or support any discriminatory legislation against dog owners, including but not limited to breed bans, restrictions on particular types of dogs, or unequal ownership requirements that are based on a dog’s physical appearance.

Read the coverage at these links:
KBTX Coverage
Best Friends Coverage