Tiara
08-01-2005, 11:01 AM
Reily, an American Pit Bull Terrier, is sweet, shy and obedient but her scarred front legs are a testimony to the breed’s potential aggression.
Police confiscated Reily and five other pit bulls in Georgia six years ago. Reily, who had been secured to a tree as punching bag, or bait dog, for other pit bulls training to fight, needed $20,000 of medical care to survive.
Reily and owner, Stephanie Scott have lived in four states, and moved to Aurora less than a month ago from Denver because of its pit-bull ban.
“When we found out Denver was going to reinstate its ban, there was no other option, we were not going to surrender our dog,” Scott said.
When Denver resumed enforcement of its 1989 ban May 9, Scott started looking for a welcoming home for a breed of dog many consider dangerous. She called Aurora Animal Care, read homeowner covenants and had her real estate agent check with Arapahoe County for any impending breed-specific legislation in Aurora.
“We went out of our way to make sure this wouldn’t be a problem,” Scott said. “We were very diligent.”
Now, the city of Aurora is considering a ban of its own. And if it passes into law — it was proposed earlier this month — Scott will take Reily to live with family in Georgia. She hopes it doesn’t come to that, and like many residents has been voicing her concerns to city council members, and Aurora’s Animal Care Division.
If the ban is approved, Aurora will join a growing list of towns and cities in Colorado that have a similar ordinances. At least eight municipalities in the state have a ban or restrictions on pit bulls, including Denver, the largest city in the country to outlaw pit bulls, according to the Colorado Municipal League.
Breed-specific bans are a tool to ensure public safety to some and a false sense of security to others.
“The opinion of most animal control agencies is that it’s not a very effective means of protecting the public from dangerous dogs,” said Martha Smith, president of Colorado Federation of Animal Welfare Agencies. “Animal control is picking up perfectly nice family pets and leaving the dangerous dogs.”
Aurora, however, won’t adopt abandoned pit bulls from its shelter, saying the dogs are inherently aggressive.
Damon Foshée hopes the proposed ban will make his family, his neighbors and his eight-year-old cocker spaniel, Sandy, safe in their Aurora cul-de-sac. Sandy’s lower jaw sits in Foshée’s freezer, while the wounded dog licks up pureed, watered-down dog food each morning. A neighbor’s pit bull attacked her, biting through her tongue and crushing her lower jaw, two months ago.
The dog grabbed Sandy by the throat, and despite multiple blows from Foshée’s fists and cowboy boots, didn’t let go, he said.
Foshée finally picked the pit bull up with Sandy still in it’s jaws. Foshée stumbled, and the pit bull lost its hold on his dog due to the impact of the three of them falling, he said.
“Until this happened I didn’t think of pit bulls as any different, but I’m a big strong guy and couldn’t get this pit bull to acknowledge my presence. It made me think, that could have been my wife,” Foshée said.
Foshée said he still has mixed feelings about banning all pit bulls, but animal control deemed the incident a dogfight, and issued both dogs a ticket for aggressive behavior.
“I’ve always thought and still think, it’s not the owner, it’s the dog,” Foshée said, and he’ll support a ban, “0nly because it was so powerful.”
Some pit bull advocates argue irresponsible owners will only turn to other intimidating breeds like rottweillers, Dobermans and bullmastiffs.
“If pit bulls are banned, there may not be as many in Aurora, but you will not get rid of the people who deliberately abuse animals to make them brutal,” Smith said.
There are 140 registered pit bulls in Aurora, but some advocates estimate 2,500 reside within the city.
Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, sponsored House Bill 1279, last year that prohibited bans targeting specific breeds. After the bill became law, Denver suspended its enforcement of the pit bull ban until it successfully challenged the law on the basis of home-rule.
Stafford has contacted Denver and Aurora officials to urge them to rethink breed-specific solutions.
“I can’t justify doggie profiling,” Staffford said. “My preference would be to toughen the dangerous dog laws.”
Aurora has had a vicious animal ordinance in place since 1979 that does not differentiate between breeds or species.
Pit-bull owners advocate policing dangerous dogs and irresponsible owners through a combination of tactics like implanting a microchip under the animal’s skin, prohibiting tethering as a means of confinement, enforcing spay and neuter laws, increasing funding for animal control divisions, police and animal control collaboration, and educating the public on what to do when threatened by a dog of any breed.
Last year, city council increased the penalties for keeping a vicious animal, from $50 to $150 for the first offense and required mandatory spaying or neutering, in addition to the implementation a microchip.
On July 19, 15 pit bulls were in the Aurora Animal Shelter, but the shelter has not put stray pit bulls up for adoption since the early 1980s because they’re inherently aggressive, said Cheryl Conway spokeswoman for Animal Care.
The shelter does hold pit bulls five days, giving their owners an opportunity to reclaim them.
How long stray pit bulls would be held and what standards would be used to identify and confiscate the dogs in Aurora has not been determined. Shelter officials say they’ve seen a marked increase in the number of abandoned pit bulls, indicating to them that more Aurora residents are choosing them.
Animal Care will look to city council for guidance on how to enforce the ban, Conway said.
“I think we will be looking at a replica of the Denver ordinance and seeing what we want to tweak,” said Councilman Bob Fitzgerald, a member of the Code Committee that requested Animal Care to take another look at the city’s dangerous animal ordinances.
Denver’s ban includes American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and dogs with a majority of the physical characteristics of any of these breeds.
The breed, or type, is itself a controversy. Staffordshire terrier aficionados say that longstanding English breed is not a pit bull, and they want the city make breed determinations before acting on a ban.
Between May 9 and June 22, Denver impounded 300 pit bulls, owners claimed 72 of the dogs and the rest were killed, according to Juan Zalasar, manager of Denver Animal Control.
Staff has experience and receives additional breed-specific training before examining dogs “from nose to tail” for a majority of pit bull characteristics, Zalasar said.
“It is a judgment call, but we’re leaning on (staff) expertise and experience,” Zalasar.
Two puppies from the same litter could be classified differently based on appearance, Zalasar said.
Denver holds pit bulls for five days while staff attempts to notify the owner. If the owner hasn’t previously been cited for violating the pit bull ban, they can pick up their dog if they have a friend living outside of Denver who will pledge to take and keep the dog.
There are no official numbers tracking where the dogs are going, but Zalasar said Aurora was probably at the top of the list.
What will happen to Aurora’s pit bull population if the ban is adopted isn’t clear.
It’s premature to say whether Aurora pit-bull owners will have a grace period to relocate their animals or possibly be able to grandfather them in, Conway said.
When the Denver ban was originally passed in 1989, about 400 pit bull owners took advantage of the opportunity to grandfather-in their dogs, Zalasar said.
“I would prefer just an out-and-out ban as soon as possible, but there are some things we have to take a look at to do it right,” Fitzgerald said.
Sonya Dias, and other metro-area pit bull owners have formed The Pit Bull BAND which stands for breed awareness not discrimination. They rallied against Denver’s ban Monday.
“It’s a long hard road. There are so many people who don’t know about the breed,” Dias said.
Members of the BAND plan to protest in front of the Aurora Municipal Center at 6:30 p.m. before the July 25 city council meeting.
City council members have received e-mails and phone calls regarding the ban. Some are skeptical whether the people they’ve heard from are Aurora residents and have decided to wait until a scheduled public hearing to decide if they will vote for the proposal.
Scott said she hopes to change the minds of council members supporting the ban, even though she recognizes Reily’s potential for aggression and doesn’t play dominance games with her like tug of war. Although she’d move for her dog, Scott said if Reily was vicious toward a person the dog would be put to sleep.
“If you’d ask me if I ever wanted a pit bull — not in a million years,” Scott said.
But Reily won her over, and now Scott hopes to win over city council members speaking on Reily’s behalf.
“I have a big responsibility to her. She’s a good dog,” Scott said.
Foshée said Sandy is recovering but he’s afraid to let her outside because the pit bull that attacked her is still living down the street.
City council will hold a public hearing on the proposed pit-bull ban 2:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at city hall.
Proposed ban dogs pit bull owners (http://www.aurorasentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=10163)
Police confiscated Reily and five other pit bulls in Georgia six years ago. Reily, who had been secured to a tree as punching bag, or bait dog, for other pit bulls training to fight, needed $20,000 of medical care to survive.
Reily and owner, Stephanie Scott have lived in four states, and moved to Aurora less than a month ago from Denver because of its pit-bull ban.
“When we found out Denver was going to reinstate its ban, there was no other option, we were not going to surrender our dog,” Scott said.
When Denver resumed enforcement of its 1989 ban May 9, Scott started looking for a welcoming home for a breed of dog many consider dangerous. She called Aurora Animal Care, read homeowner covenants and had her real estate agent check with Arapahoe County for any impending breed-specific legislation in Aurora.
“We went out of our way to make sure this wouldn’t be a problem,” Scott said. “We were very diligent.”
Now, the city of Aurora is considering a ban of its own. And if it passes into law — it was proposed earlier this month — Scott will take Reily to live with family in Georgia. She hopes it doesn’t come to that, and like many residents has been voicing her concerns to city council members, and Aurora’s Animal Care Division.
If the ban is approved, Aurora will join a growing list of towns and cities in Colorado that have a similar ordinances. At least eight municipalities in the state have a ban or restrictions on pit bulls, including Denver, the largest city in the country to outlaw pit bulls, according to the Colorado Municipal League.
Breed-specific bans are a tool to ensure public safety to some and a false sense of security to others.
“The opinion of most animal control agencies is that it’s not a very effective means of protecting the public from dangerous dogs,” said Martha Smith, president of Colorado Federation of Animal Welfare Agencies. “Animal control is picking up perfectly nice family pets and leaving the dangerous dogs.”
Aurora, however, won’t adopt abandoned pit bulls from its shelter, saying the dogs are inherently aggressive.
Damon Foshée hopes the proposed ban will make his family, his neighbors and his eight-year-old cocker spaniel, Sandy, safe in their Aurora cul-de-sac. Sandy’s lower jaw sits in Foshée’s freezer, while the wounded dog licks up pureed, watered-down dog food each morning. A neighbor’s pit bull attacked her, biting through her tongue and crushing her lower jaw, two months ago.
The dog grabbed Sandy by the throat, and despite multiple blows from Foshée’s fists and cowboy boots, didn’t let go, he said.
Foshée finally picked the pit bull up with Sandy still in it’s jaws. Foshée stumbled, and the pit bull lost its hold on his dog due to the impact of the three of them falling, he said.
“Until this happened I didn’t think of pit bulls as any different, but I’m a big strong guy and couldn’t get this pit bull to acknowledge my presence. It made me think, that could have been my wife,” Foshée said.
Foshée said he still has mixed feelings about banning all pit bulls, but animal control deemed the incident a dogfight, and issued both dogs a ticket for aggressive behavior.
“I’ve always thought and still think, it’s not the owner, it’s the dog,” Foshée said, and he’ll support a ban, “0nly because it was so powerful.”
Some pit bull advocates argue irresponsible owners will only turn to other intimidating breeds like rottweillers, Dobermans and bullmastiffs.
“If pit bulls are banned, there may not be as many in Aurora, but you will not get rid of the people who deliberately abuse animals to make them brutal,” Smith said.
There are 140 registered pit bulls in Aurora, but some advocates estimate 2,500 reside within the city.
Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, sponsored House Bill 1279, last year that prohibited bans targeting specific breeds. After the bill became law, Denver suspended its enforcement of the pit bull ban until it successfully challenged the law on the basis of home-rule.
Stafford has contacted Denver and Aurora officials to urge them to rethink breed-specific solutions.
“I can’t justify doggie profiling,” Staffford said. “My preference would be to toughen the dangerous dog laws.”
Aurora has had a vicious animal ordinance in place since 1979 that does not differentiate between breeds or species.
Pit-bull owners advocate policing dangerous dogs and irresponsible owners through a combination of tactics like implanting a microchip under the animal’s skin, prohibiting tethering as a means of confinement, enforcing spay and neuter laws, increasing funding for animal control divisions, police and animal control collaboration, and educating the public on what to do when threatened by a dog of any breed.
Last year, city council increased the penalties for keeping a vicious animal, from $50 to $150 for the first offense and required mandatory spaying or neutering, in addition to the implementation a microchip.
On July 19, 15 pit bulls were in the Aurora Animal Shelter, but the shelter has not put stray pit bulls up for adoption since the early 1980s because they’re inherently aggressive, said Cheryl Conway spokeswoman for Animal Care.
The shelter does hold pit bulls five days, giving their owners an opportunity to reclaim them.
How long stray pit bulls would be held and what standards would be used to identify and confiscate the dogs in Aurora has not been determined. Shelter officials say they’ve seen a marked increase in the number of abandoned pit bulls, indicating to them that more Aurora residents are choosing them.
Animal Care will look to city council for guidance on how to enforce the ban, Conway said.
“I think we will be looking at a replica of the Denver ordinance and seeing what we want to tweak,” said Councilman Bob Fitzgerald, a member of the Code Committee that requested Animal Care to take another look at the city’s dangerous animal ordinances.
Denver’s ban includes American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and dogs with a majority of the physical characteristics of any of these breeds.
The breed, or type, is itself a controversy. Staffordshire terrier aficionados say that longstanding English breed is not a pit bull, and they want the city make breed determinations before acting on a ban.
Between May 9 and June 22, Denver impounded 300 pit bulls, owners claimed 72 of the dogs and the rest were killed, according to Juan Zalasar, manager of Denver Animal Control.
Staff has experience and receives additional breed-specific training before examining dogs “from nose to tail” for a majority of pit bull characteristics, Zalasar said.
“It is a judgment call, but we’re leaning on (staff) expertise and experience,” Zalasar.
Two puppies from the same litter could be classified differently based on appearance, Zalasar said.
Denver holds pit bulls for five days while staff attempts to notify the owner. If the owner hasn’t previously been cited for violating the pit bull ban, they can pick up their dog if they have a friend living outside of Denver who will pledge to take and keep the dog.
There are no official numbers tracking where the dogs are going, but Zalasar said Aurora was probably at the top of the list.
What will happen to Aurora’s pit bull population if the ban is adopted isn’t clear.
It’s premature to say whether Aurora pit-bull owners will have a grace period to relocate their animals or possibly be able to grandfather them in, Conway said.
When the Denver ban was originally passed in 1989, about 400 pit bull owners took advantage of the opportunity to grandfather-in their dogs, Zalasar said.
“I would prefer just an out-and-out ban as soon as possible, but there are some things we have to take a look at to do it right,” Fitzgerald said.
Sonya Dias, and other metro-area pit bull owners have formed The Pit Bull BAND which stands for breed awareness not discrimination. They rallied against Denver’s ban Monday.
“It’s a long hard road. There are so many people who don’t know about the breed,” Dias said.
Members of the BAND plan to protest in front of the Aurora Municipal Center at 6:30 p.m. before the July 25 city council meeting.
City council members have received e-mails and phone calls regarding the ban. Some are skeptical whether the people they’ve heard from are Aurora residents and have decided to wait until a scheduled public hearing to decide if they will vote for the proposal.
Scott said she hopes to change the minds of council members supporting the ban, even though she recognizes Reily’s potential for aggression and doesn’t play dominance games with her like tug of war. Although she’d move for her dog, Scott said if Reily was vicious toward a person the dog would be put to sleep.
“If you’d ask me if I ever wanted a pit bull — not in a million years,” Scott said.
But Reily won her over, and now Scott hopes to win over city council members speaking on Reily’s behalf.
“I have a big responsibility to her. She’s a good dog,” Scott said.
Foshée said Sandy is recovering but he’s afraid to let her outside because the pit bull that attacked her is still living down the street.
City council will hold a public hearing on the proposed pit-bull ban 2:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at city hall.
Proposed ban dogs pit bull owners (http://www.aurorasentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=10163)