WPBTCA Team at AWDF 2009

By: Annetta L. Cheek

 

While many of you are aware of "BSL"-breed-specific legislation-- probably few of you have thought about other owners rights issues such as breed discrimination in homeowners or renters insurance, mandatory spay/neuter requirements, limits on the number or size of dogs you may own, cropping and docking bans, "guardianship" laws, restrictions on bite-work, and data privacy.

This is the first of several articles addressing these issues. My goal is to make  members aware of these troubling trends, and hopefully to motivate all of you to prepare for these legal issues should they become a problem in your area.

In this first article, I'll focus on mandatory spay/neuter requirements and guardianship laws. Both of these initiatives are brought to you by the animal rights movement.

 

Mandatory spay/neuter requirements
The model statute the animal rights people are recommending would set up a mandatory spay/neuter program in any community that adopted it. The only exception to the requirement in this model would be if a veterinarian says the animal is not healthy enough for the operation. It provides that failure to comply with spay/neuter requirements should be a violation of the jurisdiction's criminal provisions. It also provides that owners failing to comply with the statute will have their animals seized and given to the local shelter for adoption (spayed or neutered, of course). You can read the entire model statute at: www.isaronline.org/index.html.

Some of the legislative actions on spay/neuter requirements, which may vary by region and jurisdiction, include proposals to require all dogs to be spayed or neutered unless their owner buys an intact animal license and a breeder's license. An owner would have to pay the fee for the breeder's license, even if he didn't intend to breed.  The proposal would also require that any dog picked up by animal control be spayed or neutered before their owner could get them back.

Other proposed mandatory spay/neuter ordinance require all animals to be spayed or neutered unless the animal is a "show, breeder, law enforcement, service or competition animal or crime prevention dog", often without defining what designates a show, breeder or competition animal. Other ordinances  include provision for members of a breed or kennel cub that prove that each animal is registered with a recognized registry, and compete in two show events each year.

To be eligible for an unaltered dog license, a dog must be a law enforcement dog, a qualified service or assistance animal or a "competition dog." A "competition dog" must be registered with the AKC, UKC, ADBA or other valid registry approved by the Animal Care and Control department. Competition dogs must also meet one of the following requirements:

* The dog has competed in at least one dog show or sporting competition in the past year.

 

* The dog has earned a conformation, obedience, agility, carting, herding, protection, rally, sporting, working or other title from a purebred registry as recognized by the regional County Animal Care and Control.

* The owner is a member of a purebred dog breed club, approved by the county which maintains and enforces a code of ethics that includes restrictions from breeding dogs with genetic defects and life threatening health problems that commonly threaten the breed.

Breeders must notify their local animal control department within thirty days of a litter being whelped and must provide the name, address and telephone number of the new owner. The department can revoke or deny your license if the department receives even one sworn complaint, if you have been cited for any violation of a state or local animal control law, or if your dog is deemed dangerous.

I'm sure I don't have to explain how these provisions impact your rights. You can imagine what would happen if a disgruntled neighbor swore out a complaint against you. You can see how much this would further erode our already diminished rights to privacy and our property rights over our dogs. Which brings us to the second issue, guardianship.

"Guardianship" requirements
Animal rights activists are attempting in various communities to have the relationship between you and your dog changed from one of ownership to one of guardianship. As one group in San Francisco said, "In doing this, our ultimate goal is to elevate the status of animals from that of property to that of individuals with needs and rights of their own. Our immediate goal is to expand on existing laws to recognize a respectful relationship between two individuals of differing species, rather than maintaining the tyranny of an 'owner' over 'property'." Michael Mountain of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary wrote, "People of other genders, races and even age groups were once treated as property in this country. Now, it is time for 'people' of other species to be accorded the same simple dignity of being recognized, not as someone else's property but as beings in their own right." Now I know we all love our dogs, and sometimes we treat them like people, but the idea of their having the same legal rights as a person is more than a bit scary to me.

Animal guardianship establishes a dangerous legal situation. Using the word "guardian" instead of "owner" allows animal rights activists to have your dog taken away. In brief, guardians have much fewer legal rights than owners. As a guardian, you are under public scrutiny, and anyone can petition a court to remove you as guardian, based on any criteria they see fit. It's up to a court, as well as your defense, to show otherwise. If you don't show up to court, you naturally lose the case, and the dog.

The Council of State Governments has adopted a policy declaring that this initiative of the animal rights movement threatens the legal balance between enforcement of anticruelty laws and granting animals the same or similar rights as people. This policy states that:

"Guardianship statutes would undermine the protective care that owners can provide for their animals and the freedom of choice owners now are free to exercise, and could permit third parties to petition courts for custody of a pet, livestock, or animal for which they do not approve of the husbandry practices."

What should you do?
To defend yourself and your dogs against these trends-and the others I'll discuss in future articles-you need to stay vigilant in your own community. Exercise your right to be heard and to vote. Bad dog laws start locally. Get to know your local legislators now--before you have a problem. Visit them early and often. Let them know you are a dog owner, and that you expect the elected officials you vote for to protect your property rights. In the last article in this series, I'll go into more detail about what you can and should do. Meanwhile, you might visit the website of the Dog Federation of Wisconsin, and read the information they have on their legislative pages (www.dfow.org/legis.htm).

 

 Article contributor Dr. Annetta L. Cheek (pictured with her dogs Junior and Aoife) is the co-author of 'Dog Training With the Touch' with Tom Rose.  A version of this article first appeared in DVG magazine.

Pit Bull Profile: Lucia Corace's Primo

 

Remembering Waters' Emmit

BH, BST 10/08/98-03/20/09

 

"You think he'd given it everything, then he'd shift into another gear." D. Waters

 

"Emmit was the first born pup out of a litter of 10. Little did I know how much this little red and white pup would mean to me, my family and so many others. His dam was black and his sire was Frisco ROM. So I was not expecting any red nose pups, nevermind one so flashy. Emmit was special from the start.

I had promised a good friend his pick of the litter. There was a nice little male I thought was suited for him but he only had eyes for the crazy red/white pup. I stood by my word and let him pick. I knew it was only a matter of time before he would be bringing this pup back because he was going to be way too much dog.

 

About 10 months later my friend called me and guess what? He was back! This was the American Pit Bull Terrier I had dreamed of and it was not long before he was making me look silly. You see, he was far better dog than I was a trainer." - Dave Waters

 

Emmit's over-the-top drive, stability, and bulldog sense of humor (you know it when you see it) would continue to make Dave look silly for a good long time; may  we all be so lucky!  Emmit had so many of the characteristics that we look for in dreaming up our perfect working dog, and they made Emmit a joy to train.

It wasn't just that unreal, work-till-his-legs-give-out prey drive, his crushing grips, his seriousness when pressed, or that he'd work just as hard for a treat as he would for the bite-all of which contribute to a motivation and work ethic that make the trainer's job that much easier, but Emmit could take a correction with zero handler sensitivity and wouldn't hold a grudge. That same resiliency he demonstrated time after time with the handler was even more evident with the decoy- the dog had no quit in him.  He could bounce back from seemingly anything and he didn't have to be 'worked up to it'. I wish you could train that, but you can't, not at the deepest levels where character is programmed into the DNA. Getting back up after you get knocked down just came naturally to Emmit. To him there was no other option in that great big noggin of his. 

 

 

So many dogs with drive like Emmit's do not make good house dogs but are good for work and work only. You have to keep them in the crate and the crate had better be made of metal. You have to be careful with them at every step. One of the things that was so unusual about Emmit-although we see this kind of stability more often among our bulldogs than we do among European breeds with this kind of drive-was that he was an absolute dream to be around even when we wasn't working. He was great with people, especially kids,  with cats, dogs-yes, a high-drive, game bred Pit Bull that was good with dogs- and would go anywhere you asked. No environmental issues of any kind on any surface in any weather. You could have platzed Emmit on the top of a submarine and when it started to submerge, he'd have waited until the water was at neck level before he worried about holding his breath. Nerves of steel, a lamb in the house and a terror on the field. When Emmit was off duty, he was off duty, but when he was on, he was on.

 

 

 

Rest In Peace, Emmit.

United Schutzhund Clubs of America Recognizes WPBTCA Judges Program and Titles!

 

 Eric Shearer's Tazzy