Extremely disappointed in the government and our large breed dog owners in Florida

[Indigo Bully Connection]

I'm extremely disappointed in the Pit Bull/Large Breed dog community today. Not only did 15 opposers show up including ourselves, but the most of the speakers that represented us as a community spoke ignorantly. Obviously the catch phrase "punish the deed not the breed" was inserted in everyones speach... but these fools wanted to blame chaining and training dogs to be vicious. The senators were so misinformed with their facts... by the time they got to a lady who knew what the heck she was talking about they were irritated and rushed her. One senator through out the 1000 psi bite "statistic" in comparrison to a chihuahua arguement... most of the senators sat there and smiled and chuckled to themselves in a mocking manor at these people... ignorant or not, they deserved to be heard and respected. This is bad news Florida... bad news. I called my vets office to warn them about it being passed, to let them know that the Senator who proposed the bill is right out of Duval County who stated clearly many times before the bill was disgussed "We are talking about PIT BULLS, not any other breed but PIT BULLS". (the vets office was still ignorant enough to think they are safe because they all live in the neighboring county, Clay County) Later to be able to fall back on the vagueness of the bill that was proposed which didn't specify a particular breed. I could go on and on about how we as a community failed our dogs, as well as how our government has failed us.

I cannot count how many times they scoffed/complained about the influx of emails and telephone calls that were placed because of this bill. That is not enough people, it's time to get off your butt infront of that computer and down to the government agencies... get one on one.

These senators were throwing out recent media coverage about pit bull attacks. One that I know in particular was about the 3 year old little girl in Ocala, Florida who was attacked by a "pit bull"... in reality it was an attack from an American Bulldog.


Also, I kinda lost count with all of the "yes" votes, but I do know I counted at least 4 "Nos"

The concept that people seem to not grasp is that... it's only my dogs first, and then comes the rest of the population of dogs over 35 pounds. With this bill now that it has been passed with it's vagueness is a sure fire catch .22 for all of us pet owners.

IDK what the next step is for us to do... I just know something needs to be done. While I was there I had the pleasure of meeting Ernest Sims from the Detroit Lions who is completely on our side and is willing to fight the big fight along side of us, but the question still lies... where do we go from here? I'm coming to you guys for help/suggestions on where to begin. As a Floridian I've never had to face the reality that it can and will happen to us until this week... even then... being in communities like this... it still didn't pertain to ME ya know? I'm ready and motivated to do what needs to be done reguardless of the sacrifice.

[IRescue452]

Sorry to hear. Did anybody mention that golden retrievers are in third place for bite cases while pitties are in 14th?

[Indigo Bully Connection]

No, no one mentioned that. The only remedial comparisson that came up time and time again was a Chi vs. a pit bull... my big arguement about all of that is... when a pit bull is bred to type, there is zero tollerance for human aggression reguardless of the circumstances. A pit bull has been bred specifically to be human friendly for hundreds of years because of the necessary hands on activity which has to be done durring the old days in the box. Any pit bull who shows human aggression is what we call a Cull and one of two things need to be done with that dog... 1) put down by a licsensed veterinarian or 2) spayed/neutered to remove that trait from the gene pool and kept from any opportunity to bite a person.

This really is bigger than just my kind of dogs, it's a lot of peoples types of dogs on the line especially since the vagueness of the verbage in the bill.

[Suki Wingy]

I generally like to step back and stay out of the way when it come to politics but it's times like these that really make me angry because it's as if people know they're being ignorant but they just don't care to actually try and understand the facts in any case. In school I wrote a research paper on why breed specific legislation in any form just is not practical and there is no way anyone can unbiasedly look at the research and still think it's a good idea. This is coming from someone who finds it really hard to "take sides" or throw myself into any cause to thoroughly.

[kokopup]

I am neither for or against Pit bull terriers as a breed but the statistic on deaths
and maiming for them is not good. Dog bites are the number one reason people go to emergency rooms. The fact is any dog will bite if having a bad day or is bothered while eating or sleeping. The facts are also there that show when a Pit bull or Rotty has a bad day some one is maned or killed. Read the statistics by breed. http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Atta...%20Clifton.pdf

I think there were just a few more Pit Bull Maiming and deaths than Golden Retrievers.

[CountryWolf07]

I am neither for or against Pit bull terriers as a breed but the statistic on deaths
and maiming for them is not good. Dog bites are the number one reason people go to emergency rooms. The fact is any dog will bite if having a bad day or is bothered while eating or sleeping. The facts are also there that show when a Pit bull or Rotty has a bad day some one is maned or killed. Read the statistics by breed. http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Atta...%20Clifton.pdf

I think there were just a few more Pit Bull Maiming and deaths than Golden Retrievers.

Agreed. I have nothing against Pit Bulls either, I know they are wonderful dogs, it's just too many people in this world who have raised them to be 'viewed' as "mean" dogs, really.
And I have to say, I did NOT know that fact about Golden Retrievers.. interesting.