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As has been reported here, Denver’s breed specific legislation has managed to kill an astounding 1800-2000 Pit Bull “type” dogs since its inception, while not lowering the dog bite statistics that were the supposed target of this reprehensible law.
AKC announced yesterday afternoon that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the 2007 dismissal by the District Court of Colorado of the suit that challenged the constitutionality of the Denver breed ban.
The ordinance was re-instituted in 2005 after a fight with the State Legislature which banned bans in 2004. (The ban first went into effect in 1989.)The city and county of Denver declared “home rule” and specifically banned the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and any dog that has a majority of the traits of these breeds.
The AKC states that their breed standards are not meant to be used to define dangerous dogs. The Tenth Circuit in handing down it’s ruling in fact quoted the description of a Staffordshire as “with its affections for its friends, and children in particular, its off-duty quietness and trustworthy stability, [the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is] foremost an all-purpose dog.”
The AKC’s closing statement says it all: “The AKC supports laws that: establish a fair process by which specific dogs are identified as “dangerous” based on stated, measurable actions; impose appropriate penalties on irresponsible owners; and establish a well-defined method for dealing with dogs proven to be dangerous. If necessary, dogs proven to be “dangerous” may need to be humanely destroyed but the AKC strongly opposes any legislation that determines a dog to be “dangerous” based on specific breeds or phenotypic classes of dogs.”
It looks as if all interested parties will have to traipse through State after State trying to talk some sense into the angry, frightened, and very confused people who are supporting this over zealous,over reaching, ignorant law that does nothing to address negligent owners, the root cause of the problem. Stay tuned.
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