This will break your heart...

[Shannon]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Qlw3pzWv4

I literally cried.

[MaryKansas]

This is a very touching video Shannon.

[Heather T]

What is BSL or whatever that they are talking about here Shannon? Are they looking to destroy anything that has Pit Bull Blood? Many of those dogs looked like Boxers...or other breeds. This is sad...

[cheri]

Pitts are similar looking to boxers. Most have a longer muzzle however, many of the dogs shown are half breeds.
Taken fromwww.animallaw.info/articles/aruslweiss2001.htm

Although BSL has focused on a few breeds such as pit bulls, Rottweilers, and chows, statistics show that serious attacks have been inflicted by a variety of dog breeds, including many which have not been subject to BSL.15 In addition, opponents of BSL have pointed out that those in charge of law enforcement do not always accurately identify breeds, and that the imposition of penalties on dogs and their owners merely as a result of breed identification can be unjust and arbitrary.16

One organization that opposes BSL, the Ohio Valley Dog Owners (OVDO), suggests several reasons why breed-specific ordinances are an ineffective method for regulating dangerous dogs and protecting the public:17

Dog control problems are people problems, and are not limited to a breed or mix.

Banning a breed or declaring it inherently vicious punishes those responsible dog owners who are the type of citizens that communities need to keep, not drive away.

Communities that have instituted such bans often find that the irresponsible owners and the criminals who use dogs for illegal purposes simply switch to another breed.

Banning a breed or particular mix of breeds punishes those dogs that are reliable community citizens, therapy dogs, assistance dogs for handicapped owners, search and rescue dogs, drug-sniffing dogs, police dogs, etc., and drives them out of the community.

Breeds and mixes are often difficult to identify.

The "pit bull" is a type of dog bred for fighting, not a specific breed.

Passage of laws that are only enforced on complaint cause two problems: they create disrespect for the law if the authorities require compliance only upon complaint, and they provide ammunition for neighborhood feuds.18.....Current State of the Law

Statutes and Ordinances

Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) is defined as a law or statute that equates the qualities of a dangerous dog with a certain breed, and bans or restricts certain breeds based on identity, not behavior of a specific animal.25 This type of legislation does not make concessions for those members of the breed who are valuable assets to their communities, such as therapy dogs, assistance dogs, or advanced trained dogs such as drug dogs and search and rescue dogs. BSL identifies a dog as "dangerous" based upon its breed alone and not based on any action or offense that the individual dog has ever committed.26

As of July, 2000, thirty-eight states had enacted BSL on a statewide level or in certain municipalities, or were considering BSL on one of those levels.27 Some examples of currently active breed-specific municipal ordinances:

(1) Denver, Colorado has prohibited "any person to own, possess, keep, exercise control over, maintain, harbor, transport, or sell within the city any pit bull."28 The ordinance defines "pit bull" as "any dog that is an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of any one (1) or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club for any of the above breeds."29

(2) Waterford Charter Township, Michigan has prohibited any prospective "possession, maintenance, and harboring" of any "pit bull terriers," and justifies the prohibition by stating that "the township has further concluded that it is in the interest of public health, safety and welfare that the presence of pit bull terriers be limited in this community to only those existing licensed pit bull terrier dogs in order that the threat of this breed will eventually be removed from this community."30

(3) Des Moines, Iowa defines "vicious dog" to include the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the Pit Bull Terrier, and imposes stringent confinement, licensure, and control requirements (including provisions for animal seizure and disposal) upon any animals deemed "vicious" under the ordinance.31

(4) North Little Rock, Arkansas has restricted ownership of Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, or Bull Terriers or mixes thereof by implementing a breed-specific licensure fee of $500.00 - far more than license fees for other breeds.32

The general purpose of these laws is to either discourage, restrict, or prohibit certain breeds of dogs which are defined as "dangerous" within certain jurisdictions. Nearly all the laws, when implemented, included a "grandfather clause" which allowed current owners of the specified breeds to keep their dogs, but prohibited any prospective acquisitions or breeding. Because current owners were not stripped of their rights to keep their "banned breed" dogs, merely due to their breed identity, the enactment of the BSL did not amount to a taking of their property.

At the state level, statutes rarely prohibit or restrict specific breeds. Instead, the statutes tend to focus more on the dogs' and owners' conduct, and on dangerous behavior regardless of breed. For example, Michigan's state statutes define a "dangerous animal" as:

dog or other animal that bites or attacks a person, or a dog that bites or attacks and causes serious injury or death to another dog while the other dog is on the property or under the control of its owner. However, a dangerous animal does not include any of the following: (i) An animal that bites or attacks a person who is knowingly trespassing on the property of the animal's owner. (ii) An animal that bites or attacks a person who provokes or torments the animal. (iii) An animal that is responding in a manner that an ordinary and reasonable person would conclude was designed to protect a person if that person is engaged in a lawful activity or is the subject of an assault. (iv) Livestock33.

Taken from www.understand-a-bull.com/BSL/Locations/USLocations.htm

The States that currently have State level laws prohibiting local municipalities from passing BSL are listed below.

California | Colorado | Florida | Illinois | Maine | Minnesota | New Jersey | New York | Oklahoma | Pennsylvania | Texas | Virginia

This is a wonderful page www.understand-a-bull.com/HeroicPitties/HeroicPitties.htm Includes dogs that are service animals, military, and local law among others.

This final link has BSL to a more local level.
www.rott-n-chatter.com/rottweilers/laws/breedspecific.html

To close I thought I'd share a couple of pics of my family's dog Cage.
www.deviantart.com/deviation/39220745
www.deviantart.com/deviation/42012634 The scar you see in the last one is how he earned his name.
*edited to make the pics links

[Meghan]

no, i got the screen on but the vid pic dint show

[Meghan]

thats so sad.

[Angie C.]

I watched that a few weeks ago whe I was doing some research on pittbulls after signing a petition to stop the abuse of pittbulls and such. It's so sad what ahppends to them when they are actually one of the nicest dogs around.

[Dandy Paints Ranch]

I don't think its the dogs,....I think its who raises the dog.

[tinypony]

that is soooo sad. there's a man who owns a pit bull on our street and she is just the sweetest dog. he doesn't let her off leash because of the way some people react but she did get loose one day. me and my siblings were playing in our yard and she trotted over, sat on my feet, and started licking my hand. it's unfortunate that one of my neighbors told me i was being unsafe and asked me if i knew it was a pitbull. when i responded yes she told me that people my age had no common sense..........

[Heather T]

In my opinion any breed can be aggressive. I believe that alot of it is the way that they are socialized/raised, but I do believe that some comes from their backgrounds...they are descendants of the wolf and some of that has to surface in certain bloodlines - regardless of the breed. And in-breeding - there have to be times when that is a factor.

I don't know what the solution is, but to destroy an animal that is timid, friendly....just seems senseless.

[cheri]

Exactly Heather, with Pitt bulls it's how they are raised from birth. Any breed can be aggressive from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. If they are trained to be. I've heard some people swear that the most aggressive guard dogs are the toy breeds. LOL! I don't know how fearsome one ankle-bitter could be, but in twos or threes I can see being afraid of them.
tinypony, if you didn't have "common sense" as that woman claimed you may have run from that dog which (since we know she's a sweetie) would have told her you wanted to play and she'd chase you and might start playing rough.

What many people don't understand is that intelligent breeds like the Rottie, German, and Pit remember things like if a particular person wronged their human or their home. (I used breeds that there are BSL against as examples, it's any intelligent protective breed really) If one of those dogs attacks you there has to be a reason, especially if it has never done any thing to anyone ever!

[Shannon]

At the clinic we've had to muzzle more small dogs than large dogs of any kind, and I've only been nipped at/scratched by small dogs. I have German shepherds and some sort of small dog, and the shepherds are so much more docile than the small one. My little dog has to be separated from the others when we're not there or she'll get herself into trouble Once I went to a vet, and he required all shepherd to be muzzled at all times. Needless to say, I never went there again! Where I'm at, all chow cows, chow m ixes, pit bulls, pit mixes, or anything that LOOKS even a little bit like a pit bull is not allowed to be adopted from the animal shelter. No laws prohibiting owning them here yet, but it seems as if that would be the next step. I watched Animal cops or one of thse other shows on Animal Planet the other day, and I got so POed when they went and took someone's dog just because it was a pitbull. nothing wrong with it or the owners, other than they had an illegal dog breed Also one of my coworkers has a rott that's a therapy dog. He is sooo sweet:) She also has a mastiff therapy dog, and she's the sweetest, most obediant dog I know.

Just as a side note...if you wanted me to do something with either a pit bul (or any other supposedly "aggresive" breed) or a CAT, I'd choose the dog. Cat's are EVIL when you don't agree with them

[cheri]

LOL! I'm with you Shannon! They keep the small dogs and the cats give me the "vicious" breeds. I've been around German Shepherds since I was a baby and the very first one to come into our home after I was born was a neglected year and half old female who was just as sweet as can be. Somewhere there are pictures of our cat sitting on her while she was laying down.

*thank you for the compliment to cage from the other board. I forgot to thank you there.*

[Shannon]

Lol, my cat totally rules over the dogs, too ;D

[Linda]

We have a ranch and so we have 10 cats to keep the snakes and mice away, and 6 dogs, two are indoors. It's so cute, they have 4 dog houses and they all sleep together. You might see a dog with 1-3 cats in with him. Our dogs are all sizes and most of mixed breeds, one is a chihuahua and loves everybody. Has never shown any aggression towards anything. They all are just one big happy family. The cats even sleep in the barn by the Minis sometimes. lol
I sure would hate for someone to come and try to take away one of my dogs from me, no matter what breed it was.