Posted on 11/24/2014 9:59:54 PM PST by Altariel
MOREAUVILLE, La. (KALB News Channel 5) -- A family in Moreauville is pleading with their village to overturn an ordinance that would force them to get rid of their beloved family pet.
On October 13, the village passed an ordinance that states if you own a pit bull or a Rottweiler, you must get rid of it by December 1 or they will take it for "disposition."
News Channel 5's Brooke Buford (Twitter: @brookebuford) has the story.
O'Hara Owens is trying to spend as much time as she can with her beloved pit bull, Zeus, before the village she lives in promises to take him away from her and dispose of him on December 1.
"If anything ever happened to him, I would just shut down," she said.
O'Hara suffers from severe neck problems and has been forced to wear a halo brace and use a wheelchair.
She says Zeus acts as a sort of "therapy dog," providing love and support for her and her other brothers and sisters.
"I can sit here if I'm in pain, he comes and he notices it before I even make any noise," she said.
But, Zeus has been blacklisted as a "vicious" breed in Moreauville.
On October 13, the village voted to ban pit bulls and Rottweilers.
A letter was sent out to owners saying that if they didn't get rid of them by December 1, then they would be taken for "further disposition."
"The breed is not vicious," she said. "It's the owner. It is the way that you raise them."
O'Hara's parents tried to fight the passing of the ordinance at the meeting, but were outnumbered.
They say no one has ever complained about their dog and it has never bitten anyone.
"I asked the question, well what if I don't give you my dog?" said Joanna Armand, O'Hara's mother. "(Chief of Police) Scott Lemoine said they would come and get the dog and the dog would be disposed of and we would be fined."
News Channel 5 reached out to village to hear its side of the story.
Alderman Penn Lemoine said the ordinance was created to appease several residents.
"We had several residents that were complaining about not being able to walk along the neighborhoods because these dogs were basically running along town," Lemoine said in a phone interview.
We asked Lemoine about dog attacks...
"There have been, but I don't think they're documented," he said.
And, if they plan to kill the dogs they collect on December 1...
"I'd rather not elaborate on that," he said.
"Is that what it is? Are you going to kill the dogs?" asked reporter, Brooke Buford.
"If that's what the ordinance says, then that's what it says," Lemoine responded.
Lemoine told us he owns a German Shepard. But, he only considers pit bulls and Rottweilers as "vicious."
He also says what the town is doing is completely legal.
O'Hara Owens and her family say they plan to continue to fight for Zeus.
"Like I told them, they're going to have to take him from my cold, dead hands before they get a hold of him," Owens said.
Alderman Lemoine says if there's a strong enough public outcry about the severity of the ordinance he says he would consider possibly changing it.
The next council meeting is December 8.
If you would like to sign a petition to overturn the ordinance, you can through the family's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/savingzeusybaby?pnref=story
Thank you so very much for your input on this thread. I always enjoy learning the origin history of the different breeds and your almost always the poster that passes along the knowledge.
With regards to your final statement, “Until and unless the subhumans who have perverted these breeds are brutally punished for the misdeeds of their intentionally warped dogs, nothing will ever change.”
I agree completely. The humans that own any breed of dog should be held responsible for any damage caused to persons or property by that dog. There should not be a need for any further laws on the subject.
Sadly, we are no living in a culture where there is no responsibility, as a result we will not be able to enjoy freedom...
You’d think some of the neighbors would wise up and upgrade their canine security, even if a doberman doesn’t fit their particular household situation. :)
That’s their loss, not mine.
Ignorance is a shame.
Willful ignorance is a sin.
Seriously, thank you for your posts. Threads like these tend to bring out the statists and the conservatives—you’d think FR would have more of the latter.
Tragically, they are further enabled by the very organization created to serve and protect dogs, the AKC.
Once an august and honorable entity, the AKC now only cares about money.
They cheerfully accept insane amounts of money from puppy mills and give them the “AKC papers” that uneducated buyers still mistake for a guarantee of credibility and quality.
Several years ago, they came up with the infamous “yellow papers”, in which any dog’s disputed parentage or pedigree could be “solved” by not being able to register “3 generations” of that dog’s progeny.
In some breeds, that can be accomplished in as little *3 years*.
The potential for fraud inherit in that is outrageous.
And they don’t care because in 4 years, they can start profiting from the litter registration money, again.
I have seen them come out to investigate backyard breeders’ horrible conditions and they give them a pass because yes, technically, the dog does have “shelter”, even if it’s only a piece of plywood over its head and “food and water”, regardless of quality or cleanliness.
It’s unreal.
Responsible owners and breeders constantly rage against the machine but there are so many issues that it seems nearly insurmountable.
If the “good guys” cannot be trusted to oversee potential breed issues, how will the bad guys ever be held accountable?
The guy nearest has a Parsons.
She’s a great little dog that I adore but every night, she sleeps in her crate, unable to patrol the house or alert to noises.
The age demographics of my area tend towards small dogs.
In fact, except for a Pit about a mile away, I’m the only one around with anything respectably effective.
The guy across the road has an old GR mix but he only comes out to go to the bathroom, on a leash.
Once in a while, late at night, I hear a medium sized dog barking in the distance but i have no idea where it is.
So, *my* dogs now watch over the neighbor, via a different configuration of my art studio, so that they can see his yard, too and I have installed a security system with one of my cameras covering his yard and house.
I also have history behind me.
For 40 years, people have talked about “that little girl with the big damn Dobes”.
They know where I live.
:)
It’s all or nothing.
There’s no such thing as “a little bit of freedom”.
A small chain is still a chain.
Actually, it’s the CATS I’m most worried about. Lately they’ve been eying me in a peculiar way every time I walk past them. I think they are waiting for the most opportune time to slaughter me while I sleep and feast on my still-warm flesh.
Northern Sentinel’s first dictum of Conservatism...
In all things we need to work for a society that through education,
inculcation of moral principles and personal responsibility, is self-governing,
not one where Masterminds, no matter how well intentioned,
dictate in a draconian fashion what we as individuals can and can not do.
Welcome to obamamerica. Some busy body malcontent with a little bit of power doesn’t like something they ban it and make you a criminal.
People who support banning a scary breed of dog must, by default, support a ban on scary firearms when a liberal Bloomberg type wants them banned. You don’t get to pick and chose when it comes to government tyranny.
High capacity assault dogs...
There would be a pile of dead cops hip deep if they tried this with any of my animals.
Then I’d go after the morons who passed this ordinance.
L
I once had a pit bull that I raised from puppy hood. We had 5 kids still living at home at the time, as I recall.
Bruno was a great family dog-—until the day he went a little bezerk, and would have attacked one of our kids if I hadn’t been there to stop him.
I don’t know what, if anything, caused him to become vicious, but when he showed that bad behavior, I had him put down. The vet told me that he had become too protective of me, for whatever reason.
When I picture Appalachia, I don’t picture small dogs. :)
It sounds like your dogs are truly the Ebil Dober-lords (and Ebil Dober-ladies) of the neighborhood. ;)
Next you’ll claim that having “a little bit of freedom” is as true as being “a little bit pregnant”.
You win the thread. You summed up in two words what these breed bans are really about.
Yeah. I don’t see why the government has the authority to take other people’s animals because they *could* be dangerous. Unless a specific animal has proved itself to be harmful to other people or their property, the government should not have the ability to take away an animal. As to why some people on the site are encouraging such an overreach, I don’t know. Their hatred of the breed obviously overrides reason. It’s the same thing as with guns. People have “violent” dogs for not only companionship, but for protection. How do they decide what constitutes as a “Pitbull” or “Doberman,” anyways?. Are they adopting Nazi methods of determining “breeds”? If an animal is only half Doberman or Pitbull, does that make it equivalent to a “full” bred animal?
Lots of older folks in the general area, used to have big dogs, now at the lap dog stage of life.
However, I did see a gorgeous “black” Boxer bitch with her person in a driveway about a half mile from here.
So there’s a little hope.
Hypothryoidism is now pandemic in all breeds and the hallmark symptom is “snapping”.
Odin “snapped” right after his first birthday.
A couple hours later, we were at the vet, getting a thyroid panel done.
It came back very low.
He has taken Soloxine twice a day since the results came back.
Tick borne diseases also cause sudden, drastic aggression in formerly placid dogs.
So can pain, which dogs are excellent at hiding until it becomes too much.
Always get the dog checked before you do anything irreversible.
Imagine how you’d feel if you knew your poor, loving, loyal dog was -ill- and you killed him for it.
I cannot imagine a bigger betrayal than that.
Any vet who told you that, *without* giving the dog a *full* checkup, including a complete blood panel, is a worthless quack.
That is how Ontario Canada is doing their ban. It was started in 2004 and there are still lots of pit bulls around but their numbers are dropping and so are the bite incidents
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