MI: Sterling Heights officials to examine vicious dog laws

Sterling Heights officials to examine vicious dog laws - News - Advisor Source

Sterling Heights officials to examine vicious dog laws


Amanda Barber and her working dog Luna, a pit bull, take a break after the council meeting. Barber said she was there to show residents that "not all pit bulls are mean."


By LANA MINI
On one side of the city council chambers sat resident Jeff Norgrove, who demanded that every pit bull in the city be banned immediately.

One the other side of the room sat animal behaviorist Amanda Barber and her working dog Luna, a pit bull, who said she was willing to work with the city to devise tougher animal ordinances that aren't breed specific.

"We need to immediately ban pit bulls and not include a grandfather clause for people who already own pit bulls," Norgrove said. "We have inner city people who bought homes here ... They don't need to bring their pit bulls here. We need to do this before a child is killed."

In response, Barber replied: "People with vicious dogs, these irresponsible owners should be prosecuted and those dogs should be euthanized. Absolutely. But not every pit bull is vicious. Cities are strengthening their vicious dogs laws without banning an entire breed."

The council listened to both sides.

"We are looking at the trends to see if we need to make any changes," City Manager Mark Vanderpool said. "We are looking at our ordinance now."

After the meeting, Barber took Luna to the council members to let them meet at least one pit bull "face to face."

The dog wagged its tail and showed off its tricks for the council members by lying down, giving kisses and rolling over for stomach rubs.

(Text deleted to comply with game-dog site policy)

The question about ordinances is whether Sterling Heights should ban an entire dog breed, enforce tougher leash and animal-at-large laws, enact mandatory muzzling, ban pit bull breeding in the city or require that owners of very protective dog breeds be required to take special courses to better handle and understand the breed.

"I'm not sure if breed-specific legislation is the answer. We have to examine the laws," Police Lt. Luke Riley said.

Royal Oak struck down a pit bull ban. Grosse Pointe Woods adopted one.

The case of the four pit bulls that attacked Stempnik earlier this month goes to Sterling Heights 41-A District Court on June 28. Owner Justin Baker said he hopes to get his dogs back. He's also been cited for harboring vicious dogs.

Stempnik said he has mixed feelings as to what should happen and said that because he's a Warren resident, it's a decision that should be left to Sterling Heights officials.

According to the Center for Disease Control, rottweilers, American pit bulls, German shepherds, chow-chows, huskies, Akitas, Dalmatians, Chihuahuas and Jack Russell Terriers statistically bite the most.

"Many dogs bite, but the problem with dogs like pit bulls is that when they bite, they are very efficient with it," Riley said.

 

Amanda, "You fricking Rock"

Every single one of my dogs says, "Thank you"

 

Why was some of the text deleted?

 

Thank you Mike and 3MTA (and Dtwo for posting it too)!

Kristi - it was deleted because G-D.com prefers to keep things positive and there was a bit of negative press in regards to the two attacks that led up to this discussion, unfortunately. It's a pretty easy search to get the full article.

 

Thanks Amanda for representing and standing up for the breed! I'm quite sure Luna impressed them as she is definitely a good dog to show the breeds proper temperament!

 

shes hott! :rolleyes:..........lol

 

if yor gonna post an article you should post the whole thing so theyres no confusion bout the facts

 

Funny, Laced. Seeing as how that is me I'll take your obvious sarcasm as a compliment.

I don't frankly care what your measly Internet opinion of me is. I am out there working to keep this breed from becoming extinct. My looks play no part on the words I speak to city council when they look to propose mandatory spay/neuter and outright bans on these dogs and other breeds.

 

Awesome Amanda! Thanks so much, most people have no clue how much this does for our breed

 

You definitely rock and I loved your use of the word measly!

"The case of the four pit bulls that attacked Stempnik earlier this month.."

To the petbull people out there ^^^^^^ (4 pitbulls) this is yall not gamedog folks.

Four pitbulls attack what kind of ignorant B/S is that.........

 

But here's a reality, Atexan, it's not just the 'petbull' people that will LOSE their dogs if breed specific legislation passes. The whole BREED is in trouble and if we aren't educated and work together WITH the 'petbull' people, we WILL lose our breed.

Passing the buck doesn't do jack when Mr. or Ms. Council Person is looking at legislation that says, "You can't chain your dog" or "You can't own this type of dog." All that does is make us look stupid and unorganized.

Do you know WHY groups like the HSUS and PeTA get what they want? Because they work together. Because they think, plan and strive to put laws into place through methodical ways. We, as APBT owners - be us pet owners or gamebred dog owners - need to continue to fight. To not hate on one another and to attend our council meetings and speak to our legislators to keep these dogs. If we don't, we will fail and our dogs will pay the price.

 

I obviously touched on a nerve. Reality is its problem, reaction, solution. The problem was people started selling the <ACRONYM title="American Pit Bull Terrier" itxtvisited="1">apbt</ACRONYM> to people who knew nothing about them. Then others started spreading misinformation about how to handle them and how they were like all other dogs. Now we have the problem we are at today. Where the solution is the same repackaged misinformation that put the breed in this place, and it is a vicious cycle that is created to raise money and take away freedoms.

That being said I still think you are Great, but in my reality:

The organization referenced in the article is a petbull people run oranization whom themselves are spreading misinformation ( I went to their website and read their own words) and advocating a statewide tethering ban. I am getting involved. Thank you, and thank you 3MTA3 for posting the above article. All the help from everyone else will be appreciated!

 

Atexan - you didn't touch a nerve, but we breed owners need to work together - if it means educating 'petbull' people then so be it.

I am all for responsible tethering - without a doubt. I've seen to many other 'kennel crazy' breeds and think a tether gives a dog far more freedom. We've had a few anti-tether laws touch in our state, but not as often as other states. Thankfully, we have a large working/hunting population that helps with those as well.

Unfortunately, though, even if the pet owning population of pit bull owners is the one causing the stir, it won't be just them that is effected by this situation. We also need to look at the breeders who put an incredibly drivey dog in the hands of someone who wanted a couch potato. I've personally always said - I want my dogs to DO something, not just be leash candy. This is why I weight pull, lure course, run agility, etc., not just conformation. The dogs are expected to 'earn' their keep in my house.

Individuals who are experienced in the breed need to educate those that are less informed and help them learn how to best work with their breed of choice. It's a matter of working together for the betterment of the breed and not slinging insults and pointing the finger at everyone else.

 

Thank you for standing up for the breed. I have two blue pitts and they are the best dogs i have ever had.

 

"Many dogs bite, but the problem with dogs like pit bulls is that when they bite, they are very efficient with it," Riley said." <!-- / message --> <!-- controls --> Isnt this true with all the other dog breeds they listed? "rottweilers, American pit bulls, German shepherds, chow-chows, huskies, Akitas, Dalmatians, Chihuahuas and Jack Russell Terriers statistically bite the most." personally I would be more worried about the Akita trying to bite my ass then the "pit bull".

 

HELP!!!!! Sterling Heights resident here. Pit bull workshop was held last night. The city definitely has an agenda and it is not to help pit bulls. They showed a 30 minute PowerPoint in which they featured all the pit bull headlines from the local news "pitbull mauls child", " pit bull kills cat" plus they showed graphics photos of wounds inflicted by pit bulls. Not to mention their statistics which were skewed and retrieved from dog bite.com. HELP if u can. My E-mail jillianmsnell@hotmail.com

 

Thank you amanda and Luna. Laced With Game, what an asshole comment. You should feel like a huge asshole. This woman is doing everyone of us a favor.

 

ForHulkandSasha - I was there. It's definitely not going to be pretty. Please don't just voice your opinion there. Come to the council meetings. That workshop was nothing more than a sensationalized demonstration of politics at work.

 

Great job Amanda, I'm sure that you and luna represented the breed well