Incredibly, there are multiple communities in this country which have passed legislation that bans a dog simply because of its breed or breed mix or even when a dog simply displays the "majority of physical traits" of a particular breed.
These breed bans are put in place with utter disregard to an individual dog's temperament and/or behavior. In communities with breed bans, local law enforcement and/or animal control agencies generally have the right to confiscate and destroy a dog based solely on its breed.
Under these breed-specific laws, dogs of certain breeds are often declared vicious or dangerous merely because they exist. These laws are commonly referred to as breed specific legislation but more accurately should be referred to as breed discriminatory legislation.
As every respected canine behavior expert will tell you, dogs with sound temperaments and dogs without sound temperaments comprise each and every breed of dog in existence.
It is absolutely ludicrous that in this day and age government can legally go into people's homes and confiscate their wonderful family pets for no other reason than the breed or even the look of a dog and then kill the dog.
Respected Author Karen Delise of the National Canine Research Council, who is also a licensed veterinary technician, wrote a statistically-based article called, "Denver: Selective Counting and the Cost to Dogs and People." This article proves without a doubt the ineffectiveness of Denver's breed ban. (Also seeAttachment 2 at the bottom of this page for Delise's downloadable article.)
California and Breed Discriminatory Laws . . .
In California, it is illegal for any local jurisdiction to pass breed specific legislation except for with regard to two issues: breeding restrictions and spay-neuter restrictions.
Health & Safety Code 122331(a) states, "Cities and counties may enact dog breed-specific ordinances pertaining only to mandatory spay or neuter programs and breeding requirements, provided that no specific dog breed, or mixed dog breed, shall be declared potentially dangerous or vicious under those ordinances."
In the case of the City of Ripon, though, it certainly appears as though they are prepared to completely ignore state law, in that there are City of Ripon shelter employees have admitted to the fact that they do not adopt out pit bulls from their shelter to the public. (Dogs of all breeds have to pass behavior evaluations before adoption.)
This Stockton Record article dated 11-21-08 by Harley Becker states, quote, "Linda Johnston, Ripon's animal services supervisor, confirmed it is an 'unwritten policy' not to allow general public adoption of pit bull breeds from its animal shelter."
The same article also indicates . . . "when Cowart later went into the shelter hoping to adopt Cooper, she was told no. Ripon, she was told, does not adopt out pit bulls to the public."
Brenda Cowart, a nurse living in Ripon, ended up being able to save Cooper's life not because Ripon came into compliance with state law and adopted him to her but because a rescue group from several hundred miles away stepped in to officially rescue him. Cooper is now living happily with Brenda and her three other dogs.
* This Stockton Record article mentioned above is also preserved in Attachment 4 at the bottom of this page.
Brenda Cowart and Cooper
To name just a few (and I mean just a few) of the Victims of Denver's Breed Ban . . .
1) There was a gregarious, sweet and loving family dog named Snow who had never hurt a sole, yet she was, nevertheless, killed at the hands of the City of Denver and Denver's breed ban. (See Memorial of Snow inAttachment 3 at the bottom of this page.)
Snow
2)
There was also the story in the *Denver Daily News about Army Staff Sgt. Heidi Tufto (an individual who, ironically, has served in the U.S. Military for approximately 11 years in an effort to protect our freedoms), who was taking her three dogs for a walk in the local park just three days after moving to Denver, Colorado, when she was suddenly thrown to the ground and held at gunpoint by Denver Police.
Since Sgt. Tufto was a brand new Denver resident and no one had informed her of Denver's breed ban, she was in shock as to why police would be holding her at gunpoint.
Sgt. Tufto indicates that, despite repeatedly asking what she had done wrong, she at no time was told by Denver Police what law she had broken. In the words of Sgt. Tufto, "I was treated as the worst of criminals, publicly humiliated, and man-handled without explanation."
Denver Animal Control Officers were also present at the scene (of the crime?) and grabbed Sgt. Tufto's dog, Lumpy, a pit bull, and confiscated her, put her in a van and drove away. Sgt. Tufto's two non-bully breed dogs were also jeopardized during the incident because they had gotten away in all of the commotion with the police and animal control and were running loose.
Of course, there had been no specific act that had prompted this sudden apprehension of poor Lumpy. It was all for the mere act of existing. It was all because Denver discriminates against Lumpy's breed of dog.
Another incredible point of irony to this story is that Lumpy, the dog Denver Police and Animal Control had just apprehended and confiscated, had already been Certified as a Therapy Dog as well as an AKC Canine Good Citizen.
Sgt. Tufto then had a choice to make, which was really no choice at all. Having just signed an unbreakable one-year lease, it was either find somewhere outside of Denver for Lumpy to go for the next year, or she would be killed by the City of Denver.
So, Lumpy was flown out of Denver to safety on a CH-47 Chinook military helicopter and stayed with Sgt. Tufto's mom for a year in Oregon until Tufto's lease in Denver was up.
Incredibly, this story doesn't end there. Once she was finally able to have her lovable girl Lumpy back, Sgt. Tufto and all three of her dogs moved out of Denver and into the safety of the neighboring city of Aurora, CO.
They were just settling into their new lives there in Aurora when Aurora passed a ban of its own that, yet again, discriminated against dogs based solely on breed and not deed. So, Sgt. Tufto and her dogs were, once again, forced to move out of the area if she was going to be able to keep Lumpy and spare her life.
It is unfathomable that everything which Sgt. Tufto and her dogs have had to endure has been for the "crime" of having a Certified Therapy Dog who has also passed her AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluation but who also happens to have the misfortune of having a head that is a little too broad for the likes of the government bureaucrats in the cities of Denver and Aurora.
Lumpy and Nigel relaxing at home. Lumpy, accompanied by Nigel, escaping
death in Denver via military helicopter.
* Lumpy's story in the Denver Daily News is also preserved in Attachment 1 at the bottom of this page.
3) And then there was the case of Buddy, the ever-so-sweet, little, 11-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier who was ripped away from his loving family, including the children he had been with since they were infants, and killed at the Denver Shelter, once again, not because of anything he had done wrong in his 11 years of life but purely because of his breed.
(See Buddy's story in Attachment 5 at the bottom of this page.)
Young Buddy Baby-Sitting Buddy awaiting execution at Denver AC
Worth Watching!! The last attachment at the bottom of this page is a short video that should serve as a reminder to all of us as to why every human as well as every animal should be judged on their own merits.
To learn more about Breed Specific Legislation and Breed Bans, go to . . .
- Denver Kills Dogs
- Roverlution
- Animal Farm Foundation
- ASPCA
- BADRAP
- Best Friends Animal Society
- HSUS
- Pit Bull Rescue Central
- Stop BSL
Pit Bull Myths vs. Facts, by American Humane,Protecting Children and Animals Since 1877
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