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
dogsbite.org lies, falsifies data and will not correct it when given factual information.
Thanks Sal.
Always.
:)
Late bloomer?
;D
I am sure a stay would be given while the courts dealt with it.
The dog is private property.
This ‘law’ should at least be grandfathered in.
First of all I’m so tired of hearing this:
“The breed is not vicious,” she said. “It’s the owner. It is the way that you raise them.”
BS. There have been too many instances of “normal” families having these dogs saying they are sweet, gentle and then wham someone gets hurt. And if what they’re trying to say by “it’s the way they’re raised” means the breed needs such extensive and specific training to act like proper dogs well that right there shows the law should require mandatory extensive and specific training in order to own one.
I feel for the people affected by the ordinance who love their dogs and know they will be euthanized though:(
I agree. The dog is personal property and for the people who’ve been responsible to keep it leashed and it’s never caused any harm they shouldn’t be allowed to come in and take their beloved pet away from them. From what I read in the article neighbors complained because they were running loose or otherwise threatening somehow? Well, I can understand the fear there.
But the law sticks Rotties in there, which were NOT developed solely (or at all) for dog fighting.
I’m waiting for my 13+year old to snap as I help him on to the bed each night.
Oh, garbage. It’s a wonderful breed, they are wonderful animals. There are plenty of great bulldogs. People love to spout. To steal a handicapped woman’s therapy dog is a wicked thing to do. Why don’t they go kick her wheelchair over for fun while they are at it. I have no respect for people who write idiotic laws like this.
“Oh, we had some complaints about some dogs, so we are going to come to YOUR house, which has NOTHING to do with ANY of the complaints, FORCIBLY STEAL YOUR GOOD DOG that you are DEPENDENT on, and KILL IT, and while we are at it, fine you some money. Does she live in Cuba or Soviet Russia or something?
That is idiotic, cruel, illogical, and just plain stupid and mean. And leftist, because only leftists decide they don’t like a dog and “people shouldn’t be allowed to have something I disapprove of” and decide no one else can have one. If the woman is taking care of her dog, and it is well behaved, and suddenly they want to KILL her dog? That is disgusting. I think Fox should get on this. Because this stinks.
Unfortunately, Pits are the breed of choice of jerks. They love to take them, abuse them, neglect them, and not only do the poor dogs pay the consequences, but the good owners who find themselves with a dog that people who know diddlysquat love to hate on.
Anyone with a pit, rottie, akita, chow, Danes, GSDogs - You are in legal trouble in this PC society. Don’t think they are going to stop with pits. The way society is going, they are going to come after all of them eventually. Control freaks are like Lays potato chips - they are never satisfied with just one. In LA they really hate pits because the culture there loves to abuse pits and make monsters out of them, but one day anything that does more than squeak will be an insurance and legal nightmare.
“Oh! Your dog frightens me! I don’t like it! Naughty Naughty! Go buy a chihauhaua or something, an old lady like you should have a little tiny thing anyway, WE will tell you what you may have.”
That is the correct way to go a out it.
Do you have actual dog bite statistics to back up your claim, or are you basing it on media’s coverage of pit bulls and your own feelings?
The pit bull sleeping at my feet right now is the sweetest dog I’ve ever known.....and also an excellent watch/guard dog. Were you to enter this house in non-criminal way my only concern would be that she might lick you to death.
Actually, pit bulls require specific and intensive training (and abuse IS a form of training to make them act like vicious killers, pretty much like any other dog.
“Pit Bulls”, which are not even really a homogeneous breed, are actually derived from Staffordshire Terriers [the old Bull And Terrier] and were created hundreds of years ago as drover dogs, much the same as Rotts were.
The point of the dog was to grab and hold livestock, i.e. bulls, which kept farmers from being injured.
Rotts were once called “Village pack butcher dogs” because they were used to herd cattle to market.
Both dogs have Mastiff origins.
However, the greatest commonality that these breeds have now is *who* they are most commonly/criminally owned by.
This is the dirty elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge.
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.
Public internet outrage has squashed the action.
They are no longer going to do this.
Her dog, and all the others, are safe.
Good news. At least some statists still have enough shame to back down once they are exposed.
In case you missed the link
http://www.nola.com/news/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2014/11/moreauville_alderman_reverses.html
“”Some people are criticizing me, calling me Nazi and gutless and heartless and all kind of bad stuff,” Lemoine said. “I know they’re aggravated but ... It’s sort of got blown out of proportion.”
He was going to take peoples’ dogs and kill them.
I’m not seeing the mistake.
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