Ohio City Attorney not an idiot

Whitehall attorney says pit bull legislation unconstitutional

(by Dianne Garrett, Staff Writer - April 12, 2008)

Whitehall City Council members were barking at each other April 8 over a proposed ordinance to ban pit that the city attorney declared unconstitutional.
After reviewing the Ohio Attorney General's opinion on the issue, as well as the Ohio Supreme Court decisions, City Attorney Mike Shannon said that he believed the proposal to be unconstitutional because it does not provide for an appeals process.
"Whether or not a dog is a pit bull is a completely separate issue from whether or not a particular pit bull is vicious," Shannon said. "As such, I believe the ordinance you have sponsored is unconstitutional as it does not provide for an appeals board to hear appeals on whether dogs (other than pit bulls) are dangerous and/or vicious, or appeals on whether or not a particular dog is a pit bull."
....Spotting a pit bull can be difficult, Councilman Bob Bailey said. He was given a poster that had a photo of 20 dogs that looked like pit bulls, but only one was actually the breed.
Mayor John Wolfe ..... questioned if an attempt would be made later on to rid dogs breed by breed every time there is a complaint about a certain kind of dog. "We will go through this each time."

(thanks to Jody Preis for passing this along)

learning to be a pet

My daughter says that everyone in the world has seen the news about some of the dogs rescued from Michael Vics dog fighting/dog torturing operation, but I want to put it here anyway. First the above photograph of one of the dogs and his current owner and also this link.

free and not neurotic in Mexico

My home town has just passed an ordinance saying you can't tie your dog outside a public building. You can't ride your bike to the store with your dog-- my dog Riley's favorite thing to do- and leave him outside while you run in for a green pepper. For crying out loud. I was in Mexico last month, in a little town called La Manzanilla. Even though a local vet periodically rounds up the local dogs and spays/neuters them, there are dogs everywhere. I love it. They are free and not neurotic. A nice pitbull lived on the next block. I meant to take her picture and put it here, but I didn't, so here's Riley instead.

Riley and his little friend

Like it or not, your dog is an ambassador

I've been hearing about a young woman here in Corvallis who takes her dog, a young pit, to the dog park, off leash, even though the dog has attacked and bitten several of the dogs there. We can advocate all we want for the pits, but one dog owner like this and one untrained, aggressive dog wipes all that out. Pit bull owners, your dogs, like it or not, are ambassadors. They are showing people, by their behavior: this is what a pit bull is like. Don't let your dog reinforce unjust and inaccurate stereotypes. Fair or not, you do a disservice to the entire breed. You give ammunition to people like those in Denver who have outlawed pit bulls and have killed hundreds of family pets........
ps the painting at the top of this entry is a link. Click on it!

a letter to Air America's Ring of Fire

Today on your show, John Morgan was talking about Bush and the fact that media pretends he has what they call "loyalty," when, in fact, if one of his guys is no longer useful or, even worse, disagrees with one of his whacky policies, Bush turns on him--- Morgan said "turns on him like a pit bull." Hey! Pit bulls do not typically turn on people. Pit bulls are loyal, people-loving and trustworthy. While I agree whole-heartedly with your assessment of Mr. Bush, I have to object to your characterization of pit bulls.

Like a pit bull

Last week there was a retreat for the staff at the school where I work. I think a retreat should always include a pedicure, but it didn't. Ours was a bonding retreat. This is a pit bull blog, so I won't go into my feelings about activities designed to artificially create bonding in the workplace. One of the less irritating things we were instructed to do was to create a metaphor.

When I am teaching at my best, I am like (insert your metaphor here.)

(Which is, by the way, the very same activity a friend in Massachusetts had to do at one of her university-staff bonding retreats.)

At any rate, I said, "When I am teaching at my best, I am like a pit bull: eager, enthusiastic, fun-loving, good-natured and exuberant.

I think it's time to create new metaphors for pit bulls.