Alert: Ca Mandatory Spay/Neuter - Page 5

The bill comes back before the Assembly on April 24. I think Levine is hoping people will let there guard down and there won't be so many people there in opposition at the end of the month. I am not going to let my guard down, and I hopw you won't either. www.saveourdogs.com has continueing information on the bill and what is being done to fight it. That is how these laws get through, they keep putting it through until the opposition gets tired or just gives up. A city near me passed a 'potentiallly dangerous dog law and 'pit bull' ban without telling anyone that it was on the agenda. After it passed it came out in the paper. The county did the same thing with mandatory spay/neuter on 'pit bulls', only it never came out in the paper. Even the veterinarians never found out about it. The way people are finding out is it is on their licence renewals. A breeder of American Pit Bull Terriers in this county only breeds UKC Champion dogs, maybe one or two litters a year. Dogs he bred and titled and dogs he bought with their championship. These are valuable dogs that the county is going to force him to spay or neuter. If someone hits your car, they have to pay to fix it, or if it is totaled they have to give you the value of the car. Now the county is going to damage his propery and cause it to be valueless, who pays the reparation for that? Yes he could sell all his dogs, but to sell all that quickly he would sell at a loss. Who is going to make up that loss? "They don't sell cows or horses in pet stores." That is only because they won't fit. There are plenty of horse dealers/brokers out there. A lot of them have no problem druging a dangerous horse and selling it to a family. So let's ban the sale and breeding of horses too. Where does it end? Euthenasia rates across the country have droped conciderably in the last thirty years and are stll droping. This proves that education works. www.saveourdogs.net hss the euthanasia rates for California. I was suprised, I had been led to believe that the euthanasia rate was as high or higher than it was when I worked in the shelter twenty years ago.

That's good news about the euthanasia rates, Anika! I didn't know that either! Maybe I could have guessed, though, because last spring when my best friend was looking for a shelter pup for her daughter here in Ontario: SHE COULDN'T FIND ONE!! The only dogs in the shelter were mostly large adult mixed breeds, too large for my friend to be comfortable with. They eventually found a very nice boxer mix, but had to drive about 60 miles to pick him up from another city. They SAY he's a cross between a boxer and a Shepherd or a collie, but he's smaller than your average boxer, and has a short boxer-type coat. I suspect someone is hiding the fact there's pit bull in the pedigree, though it certainly didn't come out in his temperment...he's very sweet, and good with other dogs. Glad the bill was defeated. Let's hope it dies a premature death. I have mixed feelings about pit bulls. The were bred solely to fight. Sure, there are good ones out there, but as a result of what we humans have bred them for, they will always require special, careful handling. If we ban them, the dog fighting rings will just find ANOTHER breed to fight with.

It's too bad you feel that way about Pit Bulls, it shows ignorance. They are very nice dogs and your friends "bower" mix probably does have pit in it since it came from shelter in the city.

NO. I am NOT speaking out of ignorance. I have a friend who has worked in animal rescue for 10 years, and has helped police to break up pit bull fighting rings. She herself had 2 pits as rescues. I say 'had' because one of them had to be euthanized when it unexpectedly turned on her elderly 12 year old female mixed breed. When she tried to stop the attack, it turned on her. Luckily, she's had enough experience that she was able to ward off the attack with a broom until the dog settled down. There is a craziness that comes over them when they fight. She says you can see it in their eyes, they are just totally out of control, and beyond hearing your commands to 'stop'. Her other pit has never done this, but she handles them differently than her other 2 dogs. I also had a veterinarian tell me they reminded him of the bears he used to handle in the zoo: one minute, they're fine and the next they go berserk. Then, they're back to normal again, but in the meantime, someone's been killed or seriously injured.

All breeds have been guilty of this one time or another. This isn't cause to condem the whole breed. I have met many times more nice pits, than crazy. Would you think the same if a GSD did this to your frind? Breed bans are not good for anybody!

I have met many wonderful pits too. So many silly urban legends about pits are told people begin to believe they are all true. Unfortunately this leads to breed banning hysteria.

My dogs last night in the back of my car, I am getting ready to let them out to go in the house. A lady walking her pit, walks by the back of the vehicle, and my 2 go off. That pit just looks at the auto and keeps wagging her tail and walks on by with out a care in the world. She was such lady in the way she handled herself.

oops! Didn't mean to turn this into a pit discussion. One quick story. My tenant's pit was on a down stay and a mouse ran from out of the barn and the pitie ran from the mouse. How is that for crazy agressive? Compare that to my GSD's who would have had it for a snack. Back to AB 1634 I just recieved an e-mail that at the meeting on the 9th, 115 proponents of the bill showed up but only 114 of oponants showed. Do you think if it had gone to a vote we would have won? We need to show up on April 24th.

olskoolgsds-would you give me permission to quote you from your post of 8 Ap 2007 -00:04 I agree completely with you and your post is stated so well I would like to send it to my friends who own animals. I have tried to teach my son that to be free you must be responsible and when you give away your responsibilities or let your responsibilities be taken away you loose some freedom each time. Then step by step you are no longer free. The first step is an activity or thing is "demonized", such as smoking (which is extremely unpopular and I'm sure there will be plenty of responses to smoking which is not the point of this post- which in itself will demonstrate how well the demonization worked). Then these activities are used to make more and more laws and impose improper taxes or fees.Thus the ban on smoking (which is a legal activity) and here in Texas they put an extra one dollar tax on each pack of cigarettes.(in case you're wondering I don't smoke) This is just one example of how a person's right to participate in a legal activity is resticted and then fined or taxed and will eventually be annihilated. Remember when you think "good people shouldn't smoke", someone will be thinking "good they shouldn't own a dog" when you can no longer have a dog because you will not be able to afford to buy a dog because it will cost so much to breed a dog or import one.

All of a sudden because of the breed bans, everyone is trying to make out pits are harmless. I don't believe this. A border collie is bred to herd. They do it by instinct. If there are no sheep available they will herd your kids. A GSD is bred to do multiple tasks. Attacking is one of them, but they must stop on command. I can't imagine a GSD attacking a dog it KNEW, one that was growing quite feeble with old age, then turning on its owner when the owner tried to stop the attack. A pit bull is bred to fight. Like the bulldog, they are bred to hang on to their 'prey' no matter how much punishment they are subjected to. In the old days, they would fight bulls, and hang on even when the bull smashed them against the walls/rails of its pen. Pit bull breeders often carry a special stick with them, one designed to lever the dog's jaws open if it latches on to something or someone. Most of you have only known your friend's dogs. You have not seen the other side of the pit bull world, the illegal side. My friend has. She was sent in as an undercover witness to gather evidence against the fighting rings. I'm not in favour of banning, because it would only cause the fighting to go underground or switch to other breeds, but I do believe it's a breed that needs special handling, and is definitely NOT for inexperienced owners.