On August 23 there is going to be a town hall meeting to discuss the possible repeal of the pit bull ban in PG County, MD. This is the letter I wrote to the Board of Supervisors:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Prince George’s County Board of Supervisors,
My name is Kristie Wood, and I volunteer with an advocacy group called Ambassador Pit Bull Alliance. I am writing to you today to ask that you repeal the ban on pit bulls, and rely on already existing legislation to keep the residents of this county safe from dangerous dogs.
Sec. 3-136. of the Prince George’s County Code states:
“Vicious animals.
(a) Any dog or other animal which without provocation has attacked, bitten, or injured any human being, other animal or livestock, or which has a known propensity to attack or bite human beings or animals is defined to be a vicious animal for the purpose of this Subtitle.”
This code, in and of itself, is more than sufficient to keep the public safe from vicious dogs. Why does there need to be a separate ban for one type of dog?
All dogs are individuals. Pit bull type dogs are living, breathing beings with the capacity to love, serve, and obey. They are extremely intelligent and loyal. They serve people in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to:
· service animals for physically impaired individuals
· allergen and seizure alert
· service animals for autism
· therapy dogs for hospitalized and hospice patients
· therapy dogs for senior assisted living communities
· therapy dogs for reading programs geared to young children
· therapy dogs deployed during times of crisis to serve as comfort to citizens
Not only do pit bull type dogs serve individual people; they serve our cities, counties, and our country. They are:
· drug detection dogs
· bomb sniffing dogs
· search and rescue dogs
· police dogs
· military dogs
These dogs, as a rule, are kind hearted and people friendly. Millions of them live peacefully with their families without ever causing so much as a blip on the radar. In contrast, the few that do cause harm to people are over-reported hundreds of times on different news and social media platforms so it seems that the “problem” with pit bulls is bigger than it actually is. They are no more dangerous than any other breed of dog. There isn’t a single breed of dog out there that has never caused harm to a person or other animal. Anything that has teeth can bite/maul/maim, and the PG County Code provides language to protect the public from all of them without the need for singling out any specific breed/type of dog.
Part of what is distressing about the pit bull ban is that there is no way to visually identify whether a dog is a pit bull, or another type of dog entirely. How many dogs, who are innocent of any wrong doing, AND innocent of actually being a pit bull, have lost their lives because someone guessed wrong when trying to identify their breed? There is a game online called “Find the Pit Bull” On it are pictures of many different dogs, all resembling each other, but only one is an American Pit Bull Terrier. I have personally failed that test, and I live and breathe pit bulls. Play it yourself and see how you score.
In 2010, Science Daily reported that:
"We've found that only six or seven locations in the dog genome are necessary to explain about 80 percent of the differences in height and weight among dog breeds," said Carlos Bustamante, PhD, professor of genetics at Stanford. "In humans these are controlled by hundreds if not thousands of variants."
What does this mean? It means that physical traits are not enough to determine the breed of ANY individual dog. When shelter staff and animal rescue workers attempt to identify a dog’s breed, they are wrong over 80% of the time!
I know you have been bombarded with facts and statistics from other people and groups explaining why the Pit Bull Ban should be lifted. I have not mentioned them in this letter to you. What I’m doing instead is asking that you meet some Pit Bulls. See some of the wonderful dogs in the shelter that have done nothing wrong, but are sentenced to die anyway, just because they were unlucky enough to be born looking like a pit bull. I’m inviting you to meet my dog, who despite having been hit by a car, forced to live for months with a broken leg, survived a raging bone infection, spent time in a municipal shelter of another Maryland county, and ultimately lost his leg six months after the fact, is a gentle, loving soul. He does not hold what people have done to him against anyone. We can all learn a thing or two from him. If he is still accepting of people after what he’s been through at their hands, why can't we, as a higher species, do the same for his kind?
In closing I’d like to leave you with this thought:
“It is much more likely that a pit bull will be harmed by a human than the other way around.”
It’s the truth, and I hope these words strike a chord for you. I hope they inspire you to do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Pit Bull Mom
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