VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:33:20 03/09/02 Sat
Author: Sue N
Subject: Re: Bellevue, NE
In reply to: Sue N 's message, "Bellevue, NE" on 18:27:37 03/09/02 Sat

NEWS/FEATURES
Saturday, March 09, 2002
City considers ban on pit bulls
By Eugene Curtin
So, what’s a pit bull?

The question gained relevance last week after the Bellevue City Council instructed the city attorney to draw up an ordinance banning the breed from the city limits.

There are 22 pit bulls registered to Bellevue owners, according to records kept by the Nebraska Humane Society. Whether those owners get to keep their dogs or whether they will have to surrender them depends on how the ordinance is written by City Attorney John Herdzina. Herdzina has warned councilmembers that crafting a breed-specific ordinance could be tricky, raising questions of breed definition and what to do with those residents who already own the dogs.

Councilwoman Theresa Hatcher, an emergency room physician, doesn’t much care about legal difficulties. She, and a phalanx of her constituents, want the breed banned, period.

But the popular view of the American pit bull terrier as a muscular killer with a hair-trigger temper is not universal.

For Clay and Nancy Stricklin, the pit bull is a loyal and loving animal, a trusted companion for children, a docile house pet though a fierce protector of property and person.

The Stricklins have two of the dogs in their Olde Towne home, and had three before that. Their two boys, now strapping teens, played with their pit bulls as toddlers, riding on their backs, tweaking their ears, clumsily lifting pit bull pups off the ground, all without incident. They have the photos to prove it.

Why should such benign dogs be banned, the Stricklins ask.

Opponents cite the pit bull that attacked a 17-month-old boy in Omaha last fall, ripping off the boy’s genitals and bringing its owner a six-month jail sentence. Similar stories are a staple of media coverage of pit bulls, coverage the Stricklins said has cast a cloud over the reputation of their pets and caused at least one neighbor to fear their presence.

“To pick this breed and say it’s a bad breed is ridiculous,” Nancy Stricklin said. “If you beat and starve any dog, and train it to kill, it will kill.”

To Richard F. Stratton, a prolific author on the topic of the American pit bull terrier, the dog is a victim of media hype, sensationalizing the misdeeds of pit bulls improperly raised by abusive owners.

In his still-popular 1974 book, “This is the American pit bull terrier,” Stratton acknowledges that the pit bull has been trained for generations to fight and kill other dogs and is therefore a real threat. But, he insists, that killer instinct dissolves in the presence of humans.

“What is surprising to many people is that a breed that is such a threat to other dogs should have such an ideal disposition with people,” he wrote. “The pit bull has to rank as one of the most affectionate of all dogs, and if raised as a house pet, he will be a veritable lap dog, entertaining the family with tricks he has learned and with his generally clownish behavior.”

This picture of the pit bull as a thoroughly benign house pet contrasts starkly with its image, of course.

So what, actually, is a pit bull?

It is a lean, very muscular snub-nosed animal of the bulldog breed. It grows to a height of perhaps two feet and has extremely short, even bristly hair. It is, as described in Stratton’s book, a direct descendant of countless generations of dogs bred and trained for combat in specially designed “pits” in working-class British pubs. There, their immense strength and vice-like jaws earned the dogs notoriety and their owners handsome purses. It is the gladiator version of the American Staffordshire terrier, a show dog whose physique is similar, but whose instincts are far tamer.

Judy Varner, director of the Nebraska Humane Society, takes pit bulls very seriously.

No pit bull handed over to the humane society escapes. Adoption is not an option. They are all euthanized.

Varner said she takes no joy in that policy. It is forced on the society by the prevalence of illegal dog fighting in Omaha, she said, and by the number of pit bulls in this area being bred to fight. When a pit bull arrives at the humane society, handlers cannot know whether it is dangerous. A quiet demeanor means nothing, Varner said, since the instinct to fight and maim can lay dormant for years, breaking out suddenly and inexplicably.

“We cannot in good conscience place these dogs up for adoption,” she said. “There’s so much dog fighting going on in Omaha that most of them come from fighting stock. You can never tell when a dog’s instinct will kick in, any dog.”

Pit bulls bred for companionship through multiple generations are probably as safe as any other dog, Varner said, but that is not the history of the breed. As border collies have been bred to herd, pit bulls have been bred to fight, and that harsh fact forces a zero-tolerance rule on the humane society.

Varner acknowledges that policy might mean that benign pit bulls are being destroyed.

“It’s a horrible dilemma,” she said. “But the risk is just too great.”

Mike Kinney, an attorney and resident of Fontenelle Hills, is urging Hatcher to pursue instituting a complete ban on the animal.

He said he has never personally clashed with a pit bull, and no pit bull problem exists in his neighborhood. But he has defended dog bite cases, he said, and is aware of the permanent damage that dogs can inflict.

It was the report of the 17-month-old who lost his genitals to a pit bull that made him act.

“That was such a terrible thing,” Kinney said. “I knew then something had to be done.”

He said he considered calling for extra restrictions on pit bull owners, something that other jurisdictions have enacted. Ultimately, he said, a complete ban similar to bans enacted in Denver and Overland Park, Kan., seemed the only solution.

“All the precautions and restrictions in the world will not take those scars off your face or give that little boy back his dignity,” Kinney said.

Councilman Dave Wees, however, hopes council members will agree to judge pit bulls much as they judge people – on their merits as individuals rather than their membership in a particular group.

He favors keeping, or strengthening, the city’s existing ordinance which allows any dog to be removed, or even shot if its behavior poses an immediate threat. Such an ordinance, he said, is not “breed-specific,” and grants law enforcement officers a better tool to deal with violent dogs regardless of breed.

That approach gets a thumbs-up from the Stricklins.

“Go after the owner,” Nancy Stricklin said. “The owners are the problem. All of the dogs we’ve had, and all the ones our friends have had, we’ve never had one snap.

“They’re very beautiful, they’re very loyal. They’d do anything for you.”

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.