[ SHOWGSD-L ] : Breed Specific Legislation
- From: "Mo Murkland" <murk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <GSDhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:38:36 -0600
I got permission to cross post this from another list that I am on.....puts a
different spin on it, for me at least. Mo
Subject: BSL IS NOT ABOUT DOGS Our first instinct when BSL is proposed, is to
want others, especially legislators, to see our dogs as we do. We rush to
write letters to the government body, extolling the virtues of our dogs, and
wonder why they just don't understand. They do not care about your dogs. They
don't care if you care about your dogs. Breed specific dog laws appear on the
surface to be about dogs, but upon closer examination we discover that BSL is
all about we human owners of dogs. It's about government invading the sanctity
of our homes, and our property, and removing animals that we consider to be a
part of our family. It is about government criminalizing dog ownership by
breed. It is about fifty-six breeds of dogs now named in breed specific
prohibitions, or restrictions across the United States at this very time, that
we, the people may not own. The taking of dogs by breed is only the beginning
of the eventual removal of all animals from our ownership, and use. Animals are
among the most ancient of our traditional property, when government decides to
remove our ownership rights, it will be piecemeal, not whole hog. Think for a
moment what would happen if your city, or county government stipulated that all
dogs must be forfeit. People would stand up and put an immediate stop to that.
Those of us who own the target breeds are set apart, we are vilified, and made
to look like criminals, so that the rest of society will not be troubled by the
taking of our dogs. They will actually endorse the taking of our dogs, not
realizing that their dogs are going to be added to the growing list of
restricted, or prohibited dogs. Our dogs are purportedly endowed with mythical
powers that no other breed of canine can match. The surrounding myth would make
our dogs so omnipotent that no mere mortal could possibly outsmart, control,
train, contain, or to have a normal owner relationship with them. Realistically
all domestic animal breeds were developed by human beings. When we come to the
realization that it is us that these laws are truly aimed at, then we can shed
the blinders, and get down to the real business of protecting our rights. When
we stand up for ourselves as citizens, when we refuse to have our rights, and
our property stripped from us then we will be invincible. If a baddie killed
another person with a baseball bat, would the city fathers gather away all of
our baseball bats? Of course not. In fact, in Lancaster, CA a thirteen year
old boy beat a fifteen year old boy to death with a baseball bat. We don't see
Mike Antonovitch, LA County Supervisor, standing in front of a poster of a
snarling thirteen year old boy, wielding a baseball bat, with the words "BEFORE
THEY BAT!". No city government would take our cars if a person committed
vehicular homicide with the same make, and model that we drive. Think of the
outcry. It is equally as unreasonable to prohibit the ownership of dogs by
breed. Laws must be reasonable. It is unreasonable to write animal behavior
into laws that no animal has the capacity to understand, or to function under.
It is unreasonable to mete out criminal labels to animals, i.e. dangerous, or
potentially dangerous. It is unreasonable to proscribe punishments to animals
under our laws. Laws must give us the right to due process of law. BSL in
Denver, Kennewick, and many places across the United States remove animals for
no reason other than breed, from responsible owners, with no charges of
negligence, and no opportunity to have a case, or a case heard in the Courts.
BSL allows warrantless searches and seizures of private property for no reason
other than the breed of dog involved. BSL violates the Constitutional right to
recompense for property taken by government for public use, i.e. public safety.
Animals must not be criminalized under laws that are intended to protect human
rights, and to control human behaviors. The act of criminalizing animals
elevates them to a legal status of human beings under our laws. At the same
time it devalues humans. Cherie Graves, chairwomanResponsible Dog Owners of the
Western States
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