Posted on 05/28/2009 5:07:27 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
LEESBURG (Virginia) —A Loudoun County judge has upheld a policy prohibiting county-run animal shelters from offering pit bulls for public adoption.
Circuit Judge Burke F. McCahill ruled Thursday that publicly funded shelters are not required to make all breeds available for adoption. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at insidenova.com ...
Now they are simply put to sleep unless they were lost and the owner comes and gets them.
I'm not a pit bull fan, but I don't think a dog should be sentenced to death simply because some are trained to be killers.
IMO, Pits are predispositioned.
This is actually a case of the gov’t looking out for it’s citizens. My wife used to volunteer at the leesburg shelter years ago, and she would often lament the shady people who would come in, ask for a pitbull, if none were available, they would just walk right out. Often they would berate the staff in the process.
I’ll be the 1st to admit that they get a bad rap, but it’s pretty similar to the Sudafed situation. Enough people were misusing it, and was a public health concern that the rules had to be changed.
Fodder for the mind.
My daughter and her hubby adopted a rescued pitty - my DH and I had a FIT! We told her the dog would kill her and her kids in their sleep, he would terrify the neighbors, ya ya ya.....all that other stuff the MSM feeds us.
Then I met the dog - best dog ever too. If I could steal him away from her I would. He allows the little girls to play dress up on him, they sit on him, if the baby crys he lays down by the crib until Mommy can come. He weighs 110 lbs and thinks he is a lap dog. In fact, we love him so much we adopted a Pit of our own - who might lick you to death. Pit’s are not for everyone, they are stubborn and strong - you have to let them know YOU are the boss, but if you are successful, they are excellent companions.
In fact, my four pound cat has beat both Pits into submission, so believe me, it can be done.
This is sad.
The idea that many wonderful animals will be senselessly slaughtered is disturbing. Communities certainly have a right to place restrictions on what they consider dangerous animals, it may even be reasonable to require higher standards be met to adopt a potentially dangerous animal. (almost all are, by the way)
This is yet another example of a profoundly ignorant legislature, and an electorate all to willing to abdicate liberty for what they perceive to be security.
Many psychologists point out that often deranged perpetrators have a history of committing atrocities against animals before moving on to humans. One might wonder if societies might become desensitized in the same way.
(With apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller )
First they came for the pit bulls, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a pit bull. . .
ALL dog breeding should be banned, until the day that NO dogs/cats are put down.
LOL. At 110 lb., is he just pit or also something else? My younger dog was supposed to be half Black Lab and half Great Dane, but turned out to be half Black Lab and half Pit. He weighs about 84 lb. and is the silliest, friendliest, bumpiest dog I’ve ever owned. Of course, my 8 lb. cat, AKA “Princess of Pain,” had to each him proper kitty manners.
:)
Our terrier mix rescue is part pit - you can see it in her face when she looks directly at you. But she is the most sweet-tempered dog we could have ever asked for, which was key to our adoption because part of our intention was to help our oldest at least manage her intense fear of dogs.
A year later, and she has never snapped or growled at any of our three kids, alternately terrorizes and runs from our old gramma cat, loves all people, loves all dogs even more, just an all-around love fest from her all the time.
She does play hard, and she has the most amazing jaw I’ve ever seen - if she doesn’t want to let something go, there’s no getting it from her, and when you play with her, it quickly becomes apparent that she never closes that jaw on a human hand intentionally, because on the rare occasions when she accidentally clamps down, the pain is blinding. :) But very brief because she immediately lets go, having a great knowledge of what’s ok and what’s not.
She is mortified when she feels she is in trouble, is incredibly compliant and submissive, and is just the best choice we could have imagined. Meanwhile my daughter is no longer afraid of any dog in our neighborhood. Now if only we could adopt a storm...
On the other hand, my cousin has a true pit, and while she seems completely fine, her sheer size is downright frightening. :) I’ve never seen a more powerful looking dog, and she’s extremely protective around their four kids.
With regard to the article, when we adopted her we were asked what town we lived in - some of our neighboring ones have also outlawed pit ownership, even mixed breeds.
Bad precedent bump. First, “pit bulls”. Soon, we’ll see communities prohibiting the adoption of shepherds, dobes, perhaps mastiffs...
I am SO flippin’ glad I’m headed to this state’s mass meeting this afternoon. I am SO gonna talk to all the candidates for Attorney General (grrr).
>I am SO flippin’ glad I’m headed to this state’s mass meeting this afternoon. I am SO gonna talk<
Pardon the descent into “Generation Y” speak. I’ve been around my kid and a herd of 19 to 20-somthings the past couple of days.
Note the following quote:
“A Norfolk-based animal rescue group and a Sterling man had sued the county in an effort to change the policy.”
PETA is based in Norfolk. Now there’s a big surprise.
“ALL dog breeding should be banned, until the day that NO dogs/cats are put down.”
This judge has GUARANTEED that dogs will be destroyed. This judge has given communities the option to destroy dogs that some ignorant person thinks might, without proof, have a pit bull as a distant ancestor.
Thank heaven we are in the USA, where we are FREE to choose to adopt an animal from a shelter, or, if we want a hunting dog, or if we need a personal protection dog or even a (gasp!) show dog, we can purchase a dog from a skilled and knowledgeable dog breeder.
Thank heaven we have the freedom to boycott pet shops, backyard breeders and commercial factory-type dog breeding establishments because that is what we choose to do.
BTW, I’m so excited. My foster dog is in the process of adoption! He’s such a cool little beastie. His new people will absolutely love him (c;
Of course, that will mean that all dog breeding will be banned forever, since there will ALWAYS be dogs put down. I hope everyone on this thread read your post and understands that the radical animal rights lobby (PETA and HSUS) support exactly this, and they have gotten laws passed all over the country aimed at just this, banning or seriously limiting purposeful breeding of dogs and cats.
Unfortunately the American public has been bamboozled by the media and the AR lobby.
It’s exhausting keeping up with all the bad laws regarding dogs/breeding/ownership out there.
>It’s exhausting keeping up with all the bad laws regarding dogs/breeding/ownership out there.<
You aren’t kidding! And, this is doubly galling because Virginia has a clause in its dangerous dog law that specifically prohibits labeling an animal “vicious” or a danger simply on its breed. In Virginia, the animal MUST show some behavior, such as charging at a person (it doesn’t have to bite).
We’ve got the Dems ready to destroy our health system, and ready to stack our Supreme Court with individuals who want to control us from that branch of our government. We can’t even be confident our right to own the pet of our choice (and I’m not talking pit bulls, I’m talking Golden retrievers or Labs, too!) with the way the animal rightists are acting. Look at the way some on Free Republic (FREE, NOT ENSLAVED Republic) want to ban all dog breeding until “none are destroyed”. Impossible! There will always be dogs so abused they’re incurably vicious. They must be destroyed, no matter how much we don’t want to admit it.
Let’s suspend all dog breeding just seven years. You realize what will happen? Purebred dogs, much less mixed breeds, will cease to exist. Pharaoh hounds, which have existed since the time of King Tut, will be extinct forever. But, who gives a flying flip, it will make the bleeding hearts FEEEEEL good.
Amen. The most amazing thing to me is that even many conservatives don’t *get it*.
He was around 90 lbs when they got him - he’s just fat now.
And we are guessing on the weight - it’s hard to get him on the bathroom scale.....
My grandmother had a pit bull, it never attacked us but I have to say that my dad was the only person who ever played with that dog, and I thought he was brave. :-)
Could he be an American Bull Dog? Here’s the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bull_Dog
American Bull Dogs look a great deal like what a lot of people refer to as “Pit Bulls,” but are often a lot larger, topping out at a little over 100 lb. I suspect my younger dog is probably half American Bull Dog, given his size.
Many vets have dog scales that a dog can just be walked onto. You might check with yours and get your dog weighed that way.
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