Dog Specific Legislation

Last year (2010) a city not to far from where I went to college enacted a piece of breed specific legislation.  Specifically that any “pitbull” must be muzzled when leaving the house.  Now I did scan the law itself, but I didn’t read every line, I’m not a lawyer and legaleze gives me a headache, so I’m not going to promise I’m getting every single fact right.

Also, before I go any further, this is one of those “hot button” type issues, SO, if you’re going to comment or enter discussion here on this topic keep it polite.  Flaming, or posts that I decide approach flaming too closely, will be deleted.  If you’re one of those folks who supports your side of the issue so staunchly that you cannot even see someone comment on the other side with out trying to prove them wrong as firmly and loudly as possible because “they’re WRONG!!!” don’t bother to post here.  I’ve yet to see one of you who doesn’t descend into flaming eventually.  I will delete your posts.

If you still want to read further click below.
At some point in the last year Worcester MA decided that they had too big a problem with dog attacks and decided the best way to combat the problem was to require all “pitbulls” to wear a muzzle in public.  Various places promptly went up in flames as comments and discussions on the topic became heated.

During one of those discussions I pointed out that the legislation won’t work if for no other reason than that the average person, including the average police office and animal control officer CAN NOT correctly ID an American Pitbull when one is set amongst a group of similarly built dogs.  Another person, a dog owner, responded that “muzzles weren’t so bad…so what was the harm”  and besides, they’re not going to enforce the law like that, its just so that “they have another fine to throw at the owner” in the case of another problem cause after all its the owners that are the problem.  I stopped posting any further in that discussion at that point because it was very clear that that person, along with a bunch others, were simply never going to get the point.

Because its a proven fact, a HUGE percentage of other breeds/crosses are regularly mistaken as pitbulls.  There was even a case where a pedigreed Lab was mistaken for a pitbull by both witnesses AND animal control (I can’t find the link to the case online right now, it was a few years ago so its probably archived at this point, if someone knows where to find it let me know please).  Which means that first of all a large percentage of those “pitbull” attacks are likely done by other breeds, and 2nd there’s no way to reliably be sure that your dog won’t be “determined to be a pitbull” by the appropriate authority and that the judges won’t side with that authority because, afterall, they “are an officer of the law and therefor know what they’re doing” (seriously, judges do that, they aren’t supposed to, but they’re human).

The 2nd issue I have is that breed specific legislation DOESN’T WORK.  Yes a person attacked, or just plain bitten, by a pitbull, pitbull cross, or rottweiler/cross (or one of several similar breeds) is more likely to sustain serious injury or death.  They are generally very strong dogs.  But if you compare the overall number of attacks by pitbulls to the overall percentage of the breed population, the number of attacks isn’t that much larger than by other breeds.  That other poster was correct about one thing, its the owners that are the real problem.  The reason being that once the problem owners finally decide that owning a pitbull (or other problem breed) isn’t worth the legal hassle (a fact that some of them never learn) they just go get a different breed of dog, treat it the exact same way, and end up with the exact same problems with the new breed of dog.  Many of the cities that have had breed specific legislation in force for a while have NOT have a signifigent drop in dog bites or attacks.  They may have had a drop in attacks by the specific breed, but not overall, and in some cases the overall number of bites/attacks has actually gone UP.

If you really want to solve your dog bite/attack problem by changing your laws do something intelligent.

First of all enforce (or create and then enforce) your leash laws.  Create actual penalties that mean something for when dogs that are caught off leash off the owner’s property or in otherwise non-off leash areas.  Many cities that are creating breed specific legislation already have leash laws that they don’t enforce until its to late for the dog’s victim (or the dog themselves when they get hit by a car).

Second change (or create) the dog leash and BITE laws to be specific to the owner not the dog.  Yes a dog that attacks other dogs or people needs to be retrained at the very least.  I have no problem with that and think it ought to be required after-all maybe the owner just hasn’t a clue how to train their dog and needs help.  But what about the owner who owns a string of dogs that have bitten or attacked other animals or people?  Keep track of THAT record and by the 3rd or 4th offense by the OWNER (regardless of how many dogs are actually involved) there should be serious penalties (beyond being told no more dogs, cause seriously? They don’t care if the law says they can’t have another dog any more than they care that the law says they aren’t supposed to have a pitbull in some cities), penalties beyond a monetary fine, something approaching mandatory jail time.  And then enforce it. 

Ok, I guess I did rant afterall!


Beer Bread

Ok, so those of you who actually know me know that I don’t drink alcohol, except for very very rare vodka milkshakes (which shall have to be a whole ‘nother post).  But when I ran across a recipe a while back for beer bread I had save it to try at some point.  After all I love bread, in almost any form, and although I can’t stand beer I was pretty sure that it would end up like a different tasting sourdough.

I was right.  Just had my first couple slices off the hot loaf with some chedder cheese and its awesome.  The residual beer odor isn’t enough to throw me off and it tastes awesome.  I used Saranac Pale Ale (grabbed at a random off the shelf since I don’t drink the stuff).  Here’s the recipe I used, originally found here, though there are a selection of almost identical recipes floating around teh interwebs.

3 cups (sifted!) all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12ounce) can or bottle of beer of your choice (yes the alcohol matters, non-alcoholic won’t work)
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375.  Mix dry ingredients, stir in beer.  Pour batter into well greased loaf pan, and smooth out the top as best you can.  Pour melted butter on top and set in the oven (place a piece of tin foil underneath unless you really want to be cleaning up burnt butter off the bottom of your oven).  Bake for 1hr.  Should be nicely golden all over when done.  Let cool for 10 – 15 minutes before cutting.  Enjoy!


Snow

Ok, I know I live in Central NY state, and the nearest major city wins the Golden Snowball on a regular basis.  But enough is enough.  We’re well past the “average” for the season at this point.  Can it please just stop snowing???!!!


One of the Google ads just now…..

….was for the GE Ecomagination Challenge  which in turn reminded me of this company: Clarian Power

If you’ve not heard of them take the time to look over their site.  They are attempting to make solar and wind power (complete with backup system) available at a reasonable price to the average consumer.  Instead of a single solar panel that you pay a fortune for that then requires either signifigant electrical know-how or a paid professional, they plan to offer to the public an easy to install “plug-n-play” solar panel and wind turbine setup that requires minimal extra know-how beyond basic tool handyness and ability to follow instructions.  Still not CHEAP, but much more reasonable than the current standard setups currently on the market.  They hope to have at least some product on the market by the end of this year.


Just what trick of evolution……

….resulted in the Northern Cardinal?  I get the whole brightly colored = poison thing, but that doesn’t apply up here as much as it does further south, and you’d think a bird that looks like this:

would be prone to being picked off by predators in the winter.  Afterall they positively GLOW against green pines, dead tree branches, and white snow!
But I guess not, there’s currently 5 males and at least 3 females sitting in the front pine tree.

Something went THUNK against the window…..

….and both cats promptly went nuts trying to get at whatever it was.  So I put down my book, and got up to look outside.  Sure enough a bird had run into one of the front windows.  Kinda that surprised this is the first one (that I’m aware of anyway), though the windows aren’t oversized in anyway.

Figured I might as well go out and see if it was still alive, and if it wasn’t toss the body into the woods for the scavengers.

Little guy sat on my hand for several minutes before deciding to take off.  Very cute.

My husband asked if I’d have done the same for a starling…..and I advised him I wasn’t stupid.  I’d have still gone outside to check on the bird, but I’d have worn gloves and would not have held him till he recovered!  (and yes I scrubbed my hands afterwards!)