On Tuesday December 8th a group of us here in town caught wind of the new ordinance regarding American Bulldogs and other Bully type breeds in St. Marys,Ohio. We as a whole were outraged that there was no vote as a community to decide this new ordinance and had to find this out via the internet. We decided to draw up a petition to have this ordinance removed. At first we felt like they were calling these dogs vicious like they have in the past. Upon talking to an attorney and rereading this ordinance we have come to realize that this is not the case. They are using Breed Specific Legislation. Upon doing research on this we found the president himself and numerous other groups are totally against this and many states are doing away with this. The president stated it is a waste of public resource A new national survey commissioned by Best Friends Animal Society reveals that 84 percent of those polled believe that local, state or federal governments should not infringe on a person’s right to own whatever breed of dog they choose. Best Friends also emphasizes the cost of enforcing anti-pit bull bans; the group commissioned an economist to put together a tool that calculates the costs by city. And heres a sample calculation: In Baltimore, theres an estimated 151,105 dogs, of which 10,918 are assumed pit bull type dogs. The costs associated with enforcing laws against pit bull ownership would be $992,606 per year. So heres our point ...does the city of St. Marys feel that we as people are not smart enough to choose the breed that is right for us, that we need them to tell us which breed is okay for us to choose and which breeds are not okay to choose. Are the saying that if we do choose one of these breeds or a dog that is mixed with these breeds...that we as a society are not responsible to own more than one and responsible enough to know how our dogs need to be restricted. Does the city not feel that a felon can be rehabilitated and become a successful productive citizen. Are they saying if you slip up once in the passed thats all that your ever going to be defined as. If thats the case why do people use some of these dogs as therapy dogs for inmates and paroles. To me that is discrimination to people of this town! Why cant the city let us make our own decisions esspecially regarding something like this when statistics show that it is a waste of our tax money and time ..when that could be spent on far more important things. Why not concitrate on enforcing leash laws and responsible ownership. If we let them control us on this what are they going to control next! They are going to let the actions of a small group of people dictate our city as a whole. I am so proud of how once this petition was started in less that 4-5 days we had the support of over 1000 people and the number is going up daily most of them located here in town. And we cannot wait to see how many more we are going to get! We want this law reversed and if they dont do it willingly we as a group will look into legal action! We have already wrote the editor of the Evening Leader and will have supporters attending the next council meeting, One of which is Steffen Evan Baldwin (founder of the Ohio Animal Cruelty Force)he has shared info with WHIO news and I have shared with Lima news! we would like to extend the invitation to everyone to come show your support also. The next city council meeting is December 30th at 5pm.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 22:31:23 +0000