Ohio: Statewide Pit Bull Ban Introduced in House

OH HB 568—Statewide Pit Bull Ban
Sponsor: Rep. Tyrone Yates
ASPCA Position: Oppose
Action Needed: Please call your representative in Ohio’s House to voice your opposition to this bill. Please also call House leadership.
Ohio State Representative Tyrone Yates (D-Cincinnati) has introduced HB 568, legislation to ban pit bulls throughout the state. HB 568 would require pit bull owners to forfeit their dogs to the dog warden for destruction. The bill would also authorize law enforcement to confiscate and kill any dog whom they suspect is a pit bull.
While HB 568 has not yet been referred to a committee, we anticipate referral to the House State Government and Elections Committee.
Dangerous dogs are the product of reckless ownership practices (e.g., chaining, isolation, cruelty, failure to spay/neuter), not breed. Further, there is substantial evidence that well-enforced, breed-neutral laws keep communities safe, and no evidence that breed-specific laws are effective. If enacted, HB 568 would succeed only in removing beloved pets—members of families—from their homes.
What You Can Do
(1) Please call your state representative to urge opposition to HB 568. Look up your representative and his or her phone number here, and make sure you click on the link that says “Ohio Officials.”


(2) Please also call Rep. David Daniels, chair of the House State Government and Elections Committee, and House leadership to urge that HB 568 not receive a committee hearing.

• Rep. David Daniels’s phone number is (614) 466-3506.
• You may find the phone numbers of House leadership by clicking on their names here.

When you call, please thank your representative, Rep. Daniels and House leadership for listening to your views.
Thank you for supporting the ASPCA and caring about animals.
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This is one of the most ignorant things I’ve heard in a long time. People would have to turn over their pets to be killed because of their breed rather than their actions? And police could take and kill any dog that they THINK is a pit bull? There are American PitBull Terriers, but there are also a lot of other dogs that are called pit bulls because they possess certain physical characteristics. How would they have the experience to determine that? It’s not exactly easy because “pit bull” isn’t technically a breed…
http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html
Not so easy, huh? And I’m going to trust any random cop in Ohio with this?
As it states in the ASPCA alert above, dangerous dogs are the product of reckless ownership practices and, I would add, irresponsible and reckless breeding practices. Yes, there are problems with some pit bulls. No one is denying that. But there is research that proves that they are not inherently evil and awful dogs just waiting to eat your children.
This article - http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/02/06/060206fa_fact - talks about it.

A Georgia-based group called the American Temperament Test Society has put twenty-five thousand dogs through a ten-part standardized drill designed to assess a dog’s stability, shyness, aggressiveness, and friendliness in the company of people. A handler takes a dog on a six-foot lead and judges its reaction to stimuli such as gunshots, an umbrella opening, and a weirdly dressed stranger approaching in a threatening way. Eighty-four per cent of the pit bulls that have been given the test have passed, which ranks pit bulls ahead of beagles, Airedales, bearded collies, and all but one variety of dachshund. “We have tested somewhere around a thousand pit-bull-type dogs,” Carl Herkstroeter, the president of the A.T.T.S., says. “I’ve tested half of them. And of the number I’ve tested I have disqualified one pit bull because of aggressive tendencies. They have done extremely well. They have a good temperament. They are very good with children.” It can even be argued that the same traits that make the pit bull so aggressive toward other dogs are what make it so nice to humans. “There are a lot of pit bulls these days who are licensed therapy dogs,” the writer Vicki Hearne points out. “Their stability and resoluteness make them excellent for work with people who might not like a more bouncy, flibbertigibbet sort of dog. When pit bulls set out to provide comfort, they are as resolute as they are when they fight, but what they are resolute about is being gentle. And, because they are fearless, they can be gentle with anybody.”
Then which are the pit bulls that get into trouble? “The ones that the legislation is geared toward have aggressive tendencies that are either bred in by the breeder, trained in by the trainer, or reinforced in by the owner,” Herkstroeter says. A mean pit bull is a dog that has been turned mean, by selective breeding, by being cross-bred with a bigger, human-aggressive breed like German shepherds or Rottweilers, or by being conditioned in such a way that it begins to express hostility to human beings. A pit bull is dangerous to people, then, not to the extent that it expresses its essential pit bullness but to the extent that it deviates from it. A pit-bull ban is a generalization about a generalization about a trait that is not, in fact, general. That’s a category problem.

They will be able to confiscate and destroy any animal they THINK may be a pit bull or even LOOKS like a pit bull.

PLEASE CONTACT THESE REPRESENTATIVES AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON OH HB 568.

Capri Carfaro  614-466-7182  senator cafaro@maild.sen.state.oh.us

Debbie Newcomb 614-466-1405  district99@ohr.state.oh.us

Tyrone Yates 614-466-1308

It's not just in the US, it's world wide...and it's not just pitbulls.

Here are the eleven breeds that have been banned in part of ireland...

1) English Bull Terrier
2) Staffordshire Bull Terrier
3) American Pit Bull Terrier
4) Rottweiler
5) German Shepherd (Alsatian)
6) Doberman
7) Rhodesian Ridgeback
8) Japanese Akita
9) Bull Mastiff
10) Japanese Tosa
11) Bandog

 Banning Breeds isn't going to solve the problem. Do these people really believe that these idiots who fight dogs are going to say "gee, maybe we shouldn't do this anymore" just because they breed they use most is banned? Shockingly, they won't. They'll just move on to another breed. Maybe it will be retrievers next time, or beagles, or rat terriers. More than likely, it will be another big, 'tough looking' breed. Then, they'll ban that 'bad breed', and the dog fighters will move onto another, and when that one is banned, another. Eventually, if this idiocy continues, we'll only be allowed to own tiny toy dogs that have had their teeth surgically removed and have to were muzzles in public.

 And what if you have a mix breed dog that has no 'papers' and has an undetermined lineage.. No, they can't prove it's a pitbull, but you can't prove it's not. There are several areas in the US that have banned pit bulls and other "bully" dogs, and there have been stories coming out were owners were forced to put their beloved mixed breeds down because someone who apperently didn't like them claimed that they had a pitbull.

Here are two such stories....

www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/breedbanslabradormistake.htm

www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/breedbanspersecutionontariostyle.htm

Yes, there are breeds that are usually naturally more aggressive than others, but the pitbull isn't one. Here are the results to the temperment testing done by the American Temperment Testing Society in December 2003 to December 2005...

SCORED AVERAGE OR ABOVE:
American Pit Bull Terrier: 83.5%
American Staffordshire Terrier: 83.3%
American Bulldog: 82.3%
Cocker Spaniel: 81.7%
German Shepherd: 83.1%
Golden Retriever: 83.7%
Rottweiler: 82.5%
Staffordshire Bull Terrier: 84.7%
Standard Poodle: 85.8%

SCORED WORSE THAN AVERAGE:
Afghan: 72%
Beagle: 79.7%
Bloodhound: 71.9%
Border Collie: 79.7%
Collie: 79%
Neapolitan Mastiff: 54.5%
Old English Sheepdog: 77.8%
Shetland Sheepdog (Shelty): 66.9%
Welsh Pembroke Corgi: 78%

The only dogs that had a higher score than the pitbull were Golden Retrievers and Poodles. Some of the breeds that we think of as 'naturally nice' such as the shelty, collie, and beagle had a lower score than the "dreadful, malignant" pitbull.

 

Think about it, there are many breeds with bad histories. Boxers were use in bull baiting. Rat terriers were bred to kill rats! Does this make our beloved breed evil, distrustful, or naturally aggressive? I guess we better 'get rid' of them in regard to the public's saftey.

LawDogsUSA

I wonder who will be picking up these?

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

I just called and voiced my opinion. They said hearings are not until November.  I spoke to a lady named Charlie and her number is: 

Please voice your opinions on this for us here in Ohio. My parents have Am Staffs and I can't imagine anyone coming n to take them.

614-466-4857

I spoke with Tracy at Rep. Yates office this morning and asked him who would make the determination as to whether a dog is a pit bull or not and he said that the dog warden would make that determination.  I asked what his training was for that and he could not answer that question.  I pointed out that any confiscated dog had to be put down within ten days and that that is not sufficient time for due process in this case.  I asked if they would be doing dog DNA on each dog to prove that it is indeed a pit bull because their are many breeds that resemble the pit bull, yet have no pit blood.  He again said "I don't know. I can't answer that."

Tracy was a bit arrogent and acted as if I didn't have a brain in my head.

Marley is not registered because he's a rescue dog.  Do I need to get doggie DNA done in case he's accussed of being a pit bull?

This is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!!!!!!!!!

Julie

I just called Tyrone Yates and got voice mail. Left a message that he should be ashamed of himself and asked him what kind of work with pit bulls or studies he has done to know they all should be banned. Left my numnber, think I'll get a call back??

I have e-mailed Rep. Yates the thread "Can You Identify the Pit Bull?"   We'll see if he can find the dog he wants to destroy.  I wonder if I will get any response.

I would not be holding my breath!

That site for identifying a pit bull is sort of a lost cause in this case if these idiots consider a lab as a pit huh?

I just spoke to my state rep's office and they assure me that she (Debbie Newcomb) does not support this bill and that they have been overwhelmed with calls and e-mails against this bill.  The person that I spoke to said that it doesn't look as if this bill is going anywhere--it will be stuck in committee and will die.

Thank god for that.  This is just SO wrong!  I shared these pictures on the Pitt thread but will share them here as well.  My sister's pitt, Boston is the most loving dog I have met.  He was wonderful with Rylee who wasn't even 2 at the time.  (OK he did knock her over a couple times but not in a mean way, mostly he was just happy to be playing with a little kid and got over excited and knocked her down with his big ole' body! Than he would turn around to find her and start liking her)
Please excuse the butt, we were potty training...

I'm 99.99999% sure he can't, but he'll just say he can anyway.

These people will never admitt their own stupidity.