Stop BSL

Texas state law does not allow breed-specific legislation… for now. But anything can happen during the upcoming legislative session.

http://reporternews.com/news/2008/nov/17/local-man-wants-dangerous-dogs-banned/

Local man wants dangerous dogs banned

By Doug Myers
Reporter News
Monday, November 17, 2008

An Abilene man, dismayed after a trio of pit bulls savagely killed his daughter’s two small dogs over the weekend, is calling for a study into the most dangerous breeds of dogs locally and for the worst to be banned in the city limits.

Dee Lott, of the East Radford Hills area, said Monday he felt compelled to push for the ban in the wake of his neighbor’s three pit bulls killing the miniature schnauzers — 11-month-old Stone and 4-month-old Belle — on Saturday.

“It was extremely graphic — like a butcher shop,” Lott said. “We have to get a power sprayer to get it (the blood) off the wall.”

He and his wife, Laurie, said their daughter had taken the two schnauzers out at around 7:40 a.m. Saturday and then left to go to Abilene Christian University. Then, at approximately 8:20 a.m., the Lotts said “loud, unusual barking” was heard coming from their backyard.

When Dee Lott looked out the sliding glass door, he saw the three pit bulls surrounding the family’s 100-pound, 11-year-old lab, which was cornered against the glass door. He quickly pulled the lab inside, and one of the pit bulls lunged as the door closed, the Lotts said.

One of the pit bulls “hit the sliding door and nearly took it down,” Dee Lott said. “They were in such a frenzy, you couldn’t believe.”

After attempting to notify the owner of the pit bulls, the Lotts called 9-1-1.

According to the Lotts, two on-duty police officers and an animal control worker spent the next two hours attempting to “contain and capture the three pit bulls.”

“One officer used some type of pepper spray — which did not seem to phase the dogs — but affected the animal control worker a little,” the Lotts said in a letter describing the incident. “She asked him to stop using it. He almost had to shoot the dogs, but she was finally able to loop each one.”

Besides the “obvious grief from losing our two precious dogs, we are even more concerned for the safety of children and adults from the documented, unpredictable behavior and aggression of the pit bull breed,” the Lotts said.

After the attack, the Lotts’ neighbors agreed to have the three pit bulls put to sleep, which is set to take place this morning, Dee Lott said.

He said he doesn’t want to embarrass his neighbors, who were out of town at the time of the attack and who had a friend of theirs checking on and letting out their pit bulls.

“They were very tore up themselves,” Dee Lott said. “I have no bad feelings toward my neighbors.”

He, however, still is baffled why anyone would “need a dog of that nature.”

That’s why, he said, a study should be commissioned on the “most dangerous dogs” in Abilene and then maybe ban something like the top 5 percent of dogs — and “just not allow them.”

Dee Lott said the Abilene City Council is a public entity that could definitely conduct a study “like this and make it happen.”

“Just say they’re not allowed within the city limits,” he said.

Lenka Wright, spokeswoman for the city of Abilene, said the appropriate step is for the Lotts — if they would like to push for such a study — to contact the city’s Animal Services Advisory Board. “Then they’ll make a recommendation on whether or not to pursue a study” to the City Council, Wright said.

Dee Lott said he plans on continuing his push for local and statewide bans against dangerous dogs.

According to Reporter-News archives, municipalities such as Abilene and Breckenridge — where a pit bull attacked and killed a 7-year-old earlier this year — may create their own dangerous dog ordinances that strengthen, but do not lessen, state law.

To the state law on unprovoked attacks by dogs on people, Abilene, for example, adds unprovoked attacks on domestic animals, a fairly common addition.

As in state law, an attack has to occur in a place other than the dog’s pen. A complaint means the dog can be picked up, seized and impounded.

The animal control department can release the dog to the owner if it has not made a determination that the dog is dangerous before the six working days after its seizure and impoundment. But release of the dog does not prohibit the animal control department from receiving more information and declaring the dog a dangerous animal.