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Dog Attacks Prompts Call For Ban On Some Breeds
WCCO.COM ^ | 15 JUNE 2007 | AP

Posted on 06/16/2007 12:02:04 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist

(AP) ST PAUL, MN -- A state lawmaker called on his colleagues Friday to make it illegal to own five breeds of dogs he deemed a threat to public safety.

Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, said he plans to push next year for a state ban on Akitas, chow chows, Rottweilers, pit bulls and wolf hybrids or mixed-breed dogs with any of the above traits.

"You never hear stories about roving packs of golden retrievers attacking children in our streets," Lesch said. "But you do hear about the pit bulls, who are responsible, according to Minnesota statistics, for up to one third of the vicious attacks in this state in the past five years."

To drive home his point, Lesch appeared at a Capitol news conference with 5-year-old Brianna Senn, whose face carried wounds from a pit bull attack this month on St. Paul's East Side. He mentioned other serious attacks in recent months and distributed a packet of news clippings about them.

The dog that attacked Brianna was previously declared "potentially dangerous" by city inspectors. Her mother, Kristina Eide, said it's time to get tougher on such dogs.

"I would rather protect my daughter than protect an animal," she said.

Violating the proposed law would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days and jail and $1,000 fines.

A half-dozen members of a group that finds homes for neglected or abandoned Rottweilers, pit bulls and other nontraditional breeds criticized the proposal as too difficult to enforce and unfair to responsible dog owners.

"I don't think mass exterminating five breeds of dogs is going to solve the problem of dog bites," said Kellie Dillner, assistant education director with A Rotta Love Plus.

Dillner said better enforcing existing dangerous dog laws would be more effective than enacting breed-specific bans.

The city of Denver enacted a pit bull ban in 2005. This April, three dog owners filed a federal lawsuit over the ordinance giving them the choice of moving out of the city or giving up their pets to have them put to death. A least 1,110 dogs have been seized and killed under the law, according to the lawsuit's backers.

Miami and Cincinnati are two other major cities that ban pit bulls, according to the American Canine Foundation.

Minnesota legislators last took a serious look at the dangerous dog issue in 2001. Another St. Paul Democrat, then-Rep. Andy Dawkins, pushed to require microchips be implanted in dogs seized after attacks to keep better track of them. Owners must pay the cost of implanting the chips.

Other law changes required annual registration of dogs labeled dangerous for past attacks. It also spelled out how animal control authorities can go about destroying dogs that inflict "substantial or great bodily harm" on humans.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: maul

1 posted on 06/16/2007 12:02:10 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
We don't need no steeenkin' new laws for pets....

Everyone needs the ultimate hostile attack-dog protection...

A trained defense-porcupine:

*******

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

********

Take that PHYDEAUX....

And all your blood-thirsty pack buddies.... too!

(This must be reeeeaaallllly painful....)

2 posted on 06/16/2007 12:12:40 PM PDT by Wings-n-Wind (The main things are the plain things!)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

It won’t be long before nanny-staters just start referring to them as “assault canines”.


3 posted on 06/16/2007 12:18:36 PM PDT by Doohickey (Giuliani: Brokeback Republican)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
For dog breeds such as pit bulls, they can be sterilized so that while those living now can keep on being pets (the behaved ones), the breed dies out.

A fair amount of freepers are against legislation such as this to target specific dog breeds, but some were bred for attacking and violence. Even if it is mainly dependent on the owner to raise their dogs to be behaved and non-aggressive, genes play a larger role in animal behavior than in humans--dogs are not furry, little people who walk on all four limbs.

4 posted on 06/16/2007 12:31:41 PM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu ( What is your take on Acts 15:20 (abstaining from blood) about eating meat? Could you freepmail?)
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To: Wings-n-Wind

I can’t think of a more painful surprise.


5 posted on 06/16/2007 12:56:40 PM PDT by 353FMG (Some say it's a melting pot, others liken it to a pressure cooker.)
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To: Wings-n-Wind
My stars - hurts just to look at that pic!!!
6 posted on 06/16/2007 1:15:04 PM PDT by GoldCountryRedneck ("Flying is like Life: Know where you are, where you're going, and how to get there." - 'Ol Dad)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
a state ban on Akitas, chow chows, Rottweilers, pit bulls and wolf hybrids or mixed-breed dogs with any of the above traits.

They left out the dreaded killer Pug-o-diles:

Cute Overload

7 posted on 06/16/2007 2:57:33 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (A man who will not defend himself does not deserve to be defended by others.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Ban politicians; public enemy #1.


8 posted on 06/16/2007 3:06:14 PM PDT by jwh_Denver (Press 1 for English. Not me, I press 2 and say I can't speak Spanish.)
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To: jwh_Denver
Dogs bite, a fact of life. Politicians do more harm than the most vicious dog.
9 posted on 06/16/2007 3:55:17 PM PDT by fernwood (those who sacrifice freedom for safety, get neither)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Dogs don’t kill people . . . PEOPLE kill . . . oh wait. Nevermind.


10 posted on 06/16/2007 7:09:21 PM PDT by Maceman
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To: Jeff Chandler

PS - That pug-o-dile had me, my wife and our pug laughing.

11 posted on 06/17/2007 11:38:55 AM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (I buy gas for my SUV with the Carbon Offsets I sell on Ebay!)
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