Letters to the Editor
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Criminal liability
AKASmith-
I think that you're going to find that the courts generally frown on the use of lethal force to protect your property, so when your dog mauls that kid in your backyard, you're going to be criminally liable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_property
As an owner of a dangerous dog, this is probably an issue that you should read up on.
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I love gangsta pits
God, nothing I love more as a 30's white woman than to come up to a wannabe gangsta and his tight pit and get a little pit kiss.
It's so embarrassing to the gangstas when I start flirting with the pit bull and the pit *always* firts back. And then I need to move in and do some petting.
Their tough dog is a pushover. A real ladies man. They can't help it -- that's the temperment of a REAL American Pit Bull Terrier.
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"if I give you a couple of wolves, you could "breed" out any trait you wanted in a generation or two"
No I didn't say that. I would never say that. In fact, you cannot do that with a wolf. What I said is that domestic dogs are different from wolves. Breeders breed for specific behavior traits all the time, just as they also breed for health and physical appearance.
The fact that some people breed pits for fighting does not alter the fact that many more breeders don't.
In fact, I don't much like the breed registries in terms of some things that they have in the breed standard that they say breeders should try to produce. For instance, in my opinion, they should be trying to breed dog aggression OUT of the bully breeds. If they don't do this, they run the risk of just the sort of hostility I see in this thread.
Do not mistake me. I am no particular fan of the pit. I just don't think breed bans effectively achieve their desired result and they hurt lots of innocent dogs and people.
You may know genetics but it is obvious that you do not know dogs.
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yesterday's law
Yesterday, in Memphis, a law was passed regarding vicious dogs.
As is usual in Memphis, the law is about 20% what everyone wants, 50% lipflap, and the remaining 30% pure-d idiocy.
For owners who abuse their pets, a summons to City Court and a $50 fine was standard practice under the city's previous law. But now, those owners could be sent to Judge Larry Potter's Environmental Court in General Sessions, where the penalties could be stiffer.
Owners could be restricted from owning animals, have to undergo behavior health evaluations or enroll in special programs to deter cruelty.
Failing to abide by the court's ruling could result in large fines and jail time.
In another change, owners involved in court actions will have to post a $2,000 bond to Animal Services while it holds their pet.
The ordinance also widens the definition of a dangerous animal. In addition to attacks on humans, the law adds that a dog off its property can be declared dangerous if it severely attacks another animal. And for the first time, animals deemed dangerous must be spayed or neutered.
The new law also bans cats defecating in other people's yards, which I guess means it's no longer legal to own an outdoor cat, since cats shit where they want to. Okay, fine, I don't think cats belong outdoor in the city, but I'm pretty sure the majority of people in Memphis weren't clamoring for a law about it.
This law was inspired by the case I wrote about earlier, a man who had his arm ripped off at a bus stop by a pit bull. The pit bull was a guard dog chained outside a car dealership. It slipped the chain after hours. The man who owned the car dealership was hit with a $50 fine, the maximum possible under the law at that time. Many people thought that was insufficient, since he had intentionally bought and trained a vicious dog which was supposed to attack humans. The dog was put to sleep.
Let's go over that again:
1) Man A buys a guard dog, guaranteed vicious, and trains it to attack a man armored in carpet remnants. (There was an article on this dog trainer, who is still operating.) Keeps dog chained in a parking lot, without shelter. Not a very good chain - dog escapes. His fate? $50 fine and some bad newspaper publicity.
2) Man B waits at bus stop. Has arm ripped off. Life saved by two passing strangers with a crowbar. His fate? A lot of medical bills, life without an arm. In TN, the man with the dog isn't liable, since it's legal to own a guard dog and there had been no previous instances of the dog escaping the property, so he can't be considered negligent.
3) The pit bull - bred to be vicious, trained to attack humans by savage mistreatment, chained in a yard - his fate? Death.
Sound fair?
I have my doubts that this new law will improve matters, but at least it gives the law teeth, even if they're poodle teeth and not pit bull teeth.
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Legal definition of dangerous dog
"Dangerous dog" is a legal term, which varies state by state, municipality by municipality.
My dogs, staffordshire bull terriers, are not dangerous dogs here.
To be dangerous dogs here, they need to injure a person or animal, have a mini trial, and be declared dangerous if that is found to be true.
If I drive into Denver or Ohio, my dogs are automatically considered Dangerous Dogs (or whatever other legal terminology is used in the area).
I don't think AKA Smith has dangerous dogs, based on descriptions of neighborhood. So that description is inaccurate in most cases.
We are "criminally liable" for lots of things, such as vehicular manslaughter. We are civilly liable for other things, such as people falling on our property. Dogs are property, under the law, and fall under the civil remedies that we use for property.
If my rotten tree falls on your head and kills you, you can sue me civilly. If I tie you down and push my rotten tree on you, that's criminal.
Just because my property *MAY* be dangerous, my tree (though not rotten) *MAY* fall on your head, we don't need to ban trees.
Plenty of people get away with serious felonies every day. It happened to me. We don't publish the number of rapes and assaults, caused by real people on real people, that go unaddressed and unsolved every day. It would be too depressing.
Leave me and my law-abiding dogs alone.