South Florida pit bull ban

South Florida pit bull ban

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/op...ban-pitbull-buzz-stein-m060309,0,190485.story

Ban pit bulls - they don't belong here
When you talking about pit bulls, the dog is the problem. They should be banned, pure and simple, in urban areas like South Florida.

By Gary Stein | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
June 3, 2009
Please spare me the typical animal lovers cliche about pit bulls, Nicole.

Don't give me the blather about "It's not the dog that's bad, it's the owner's fault. A good owner means a good dog."

I will grant you that some -- probably many -- pit bull owners are mongrels themselves, and don't care that their dog is terrorizing the neighborhood. Bad human being, bad owner, bad dog. I agree.

But when you talking about pit bulls, the dog IS the problem. They should be banned, pure and simple, in urban areas like South Florida.

Don't believe me? Fine. Check with the good folks at the Centers for Disease Control, who every year put pit bulls at or near the top of their list of most dangerous dogs.

Or check the numbers from 2007. There were 440 incidents in which pit bulls and pit bull mixes bit people in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch their bite can do more than a poodle bite.

And please, don't tell me you like pit bulls because they really are friendly and good with kids. You want a dog that's good with kids and won't terrorize the neighborhood, get a golden retriever.

Pit bulls are aggressive animals that might not be in the mood to listen to their owner, no matter how kind and cuddly and attentive the owner might be. And when that happens, you don't want to walking down the street, you don't want your pet to be walking down the street, and you sure at heck don't want your kids walking down the street. If I had a little child, I wouldn't let him out of the house if there was a pit bull nearby.

Also, seems to me too many pit bull owners just have the dog to be macho. And it works.

State law says local governments can't ban dogs by breed. The prohibition doesn't apply to Sunrise, Tamarac and Miami-Dade County, which passed ordinances banning pit bulls prior to the state prohibition in 1990.

But other cities in South Florida have attempted to ban pit bulls, and I applaud them. Hopefully they will eventually succeed.

You see, in an ideal world, all pit bull owners would be wonderful, caring people and their dogs would be well-behaved and friendly. But the fact is, you can't MAKE a dog owner be good to his pet. It just isn't going to happen.

Bottom line, good owner or bad, pit bulls have no place in South Florida. They don't belong.

Also please vote on this page
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/todaysbuzz/wednesday/

Aaron Wood