BSL Updates: Delta, Yucaipa, Des Moines, Brandon, Flowood

BSL Updates:

Delta, BC is reconsidering its BSL laws. Apparently, council is mulling over a proposal to remove the breed-specific dog bylaw that currently designates pit bulls as automatically dangerous and requires their guardians to pay higher license fees and to muzzle their dogs in public.

“It comes back to the fact that guardians are ultimately responsible and our role as a municipality should be as an educator. “

Campbell and his council colleagues have endured harsh criticism from members of the public opposed to amending the municipality’s breed-specific animal control bylaw, which was enacted in the early 1990s.

However, Campbell says civic staff who researched the issue could find no connection between breed and a predisposition to fight or kill.

Instead, staff found that animal behavior, characteristics and traits are determined by both genetics and environment. According to BC SPCA animal welfare manager Geoff Urton, neither breed-specific bylaws nor breed bans protect the public from aggressive dogs because they ignore the fact that aggressive behavior can occur in any breed.

That, he says, includes but isn’t limited to pit bulls. The most effective safeguards are those that protect the public from dangerous dogs of any and all breeds, he says.

“Breed-specific bylaws give the public a false sense of security,” says Urton, himself the guardian of a pit bull mix named Lucy.

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Brandon and Flowood, MS passed BSL ordinances and pit bull owners in the city of Brandon have two months to obtain permits that require a special pen for the dogs and liability insurance. Meanwhile, Flowood residents who own pit bulls have one month to obtain the permits. The regulations were unanimously adopted on pit bulls and similar dogs in both cities; however, they were clearly CYA moves. CYA=Cover Your Ass. The cities are covering their asses just in case of an incident, not because of an incident—BOGUS!

What bothers me is that NO ONE spoke at the cities ordinances. NOBODY.

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Yucaipa, California City Council has approved the first proposal to require spaying and neutering of pit bulls. The City Council approved the ordinance’s first reading on a 4-1 vote Monday night.
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In Des Moines, some vicious dogs have been spared. The Des Moines City Council unanimously approved Monday a change to the city’s vicious dog ordinance that would spare some of the animals from being euthanized. Under the original ordinance, a vicious dog that was found running loose or unlicensed more than once would be put down. Dogs are considered vicious if they have attacked someone, have a history of aggressive tendencies, or are of a particular breed. The change approved Monday spares unleashed and unlicensed dogs that are deemed vicious based strictly on their breed. Those dogs can now be adopted instead of killed.
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In Brandon, MS, city council may discuss the new BSL ordinances and the fact they weren’t well publicized. Residents voiced their concern that the hearings weren’t well publicized; the city took the silence regarding the ordinances as agreement instead of unawareness. YEAH RIGHT!
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After San Bernardino County passed mandatory spay/neuter for “pit bulls,” the cities of Highland and Yucaipa followed the county’s lead. Both cities now have the same proposal in front of their city councils for a final vote. The county is “informing” all of the 24 cities in the county about the new breed-specific ordinance, in case the cities are interested in passing BSL as well