Miami-Dade County, FL: DNA test fails to sway hearing officer

The dog in question has done nothing wrong. It is merely short-haired and somewhat “muscular.”

http://www.justnews.com/news/20247837/detail.html

Dog Trial: Case Of Mistaken Identity?

Owner Says Miami-Dade Animal Services Has Wrong Dog

POSTED: Saturday, August 1, 2009
UPDATED: 9:44 am EDT August 3, 2009

MIAMI — A 3-year-old Miami-Dade dog that goes by the name Baby Girl was at the center of a Friday afternoon ordinance hearing at the South Dade Justice Center.

In June, Miami-Dade Animal Services handed owner Carlos McLiberty a citation stating Baby Girl is a pit bull and needed to be relocated. It has been against county law to own the breed since 1989.

McLiberty, with the help of a lawyer, set out to prove Baby Girl is not a pit bull but a completely different breed.

According to animal services, officers currently determine breeds by visual inspection. McLiberty’s attorney, Rima Bardawil, said that leaves room for error.

“If you take a dog from the general public, it’s going to have traits of a lot of different dogs,” she said.

Bardawil said the added popularity of mixed dogs has led to many cases of mistaken identity. She said she hoped DNA testing she had performed on Baby Girl would reveal her true identity.

“Under the DNA tests we took, this dog shows four different breeds, none of which are banned in Miami-Dade County,” she said. Bardawil said according to the test results, Baby Girl is part whippet, not pit bull.

The results did not convince hearing officer Rafael Licea, who said the physical description of Baby Girl satisfied the county’s pit bull definition.

Despite the verdict, animal services said this confusion over breeds could be a sign the ordinance needs to change.

“I think that all dogs deserve a second chance. I don’t think breed-specific legislation is the answer. We should instead focus on pet owners” said Kathleen Labrada with Miami-Dade Animal Services. “The ordinance was passed in 1989 in response to an increase in attacks by Pit Bulls. As long as it’s in effect, we’ll continue to enforce it,” she added.

Bardawil said she would appeal Friday’s decision. She said the results of the hearing shows how outdated Miami-Dade County’s pit bull ban is.