Milwaukee Passes Breed-Specific Ordinance

[LORHEL]

Just got this one too in Dog World May 2002: UPDATE FOR YOU FOLKS IN WISCONSIN...

Milwaukee city officials in February passed a measure that will create leash, fencing, and training standards for the owners of Pit Bulls and Rottweilers, and penalties ranging from $50 to $500 for the owners of AT LARGE DOGS of these breeds. (Penalties for all other breeds range from $25 to $250).

In addition, the new ordinance will prohibit individuals younger than 16 :) from holding the leash of these "dangerous" breeds unless they provide written approval from the Department of Neighborhood Services.

The law defines a Pit Bull as any dog that is "one half or more American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Miniature Bull Terrier, or Staffordshire Bull Terrior. It does not mention how the breed would be determined. The ordinance also requires the owner of any Pit Bull to "attend a MINIMUM of one dog behavior or training class per year offered by a trainer recommended by the Wisconsin Humane Society, the Milwaukee Dog Training Club, or the Cudahy Kennel Club.

However, according to the Dog Federation of Wisconsin, there is some question as to whether these organizations are able or willing to offer classes.

The ordinance says "the City of Milwaukee needs to operative in the most cost-effective manner, so enforcement of this ordinance will be concentrated with respect to THE PROBLEM OWNERS WHO PERMIT THEIR DOGS TO RUN AT LARGE, BE A NUISANCE TO NEIGHBORS OR WHO HAVE BITTEN PEOPLE."

******BEST PART*****************

Law-enforcement officials will steer clear of owners of liscenced Pit Bulls and Rottweilers that have NO negative impact on public safety or health, the law says.
**************************************************
The New York-based American Kennel Club responded to the measure in a prepared statement: "In order to be effective, such legislation should not single out specific breeds or phenotypic classes of dogs. Deeds, not breeds should be addressed. The City of Milwaukee has a strong dangerous dog law in place that, when enforced successfully speaks to this issue."

To comment, write to Mayor John Nordquist, Office of the Mayor, City Hall, 200 E. Wells Street, Room 201 Milwaukee WI 53202 or call (414) 286-200 or fax (414) 286-3191.

Dog World May 2002 issue.


FINALLY SOMEONE WITH SOME BRAINS BEHIND ALL THIS IS LISTENING!!!!!!!




:) :)

[SarasMom]

NO BSL is acceptable. If dangerous dog legislation doesn't apply to all breeds, I don't want it, no matter how good it might seem. They're only going to enforce it for the "bad" Rottweilers and PitBulls? How about the bad GSDs, mixed breeds and Yorkies? (Must not be any bad dogs besides Rotties and PitBulls ) Milwaukee is dead wrong!

[Rott4ever]

This breed-ban thing has been eating at me for a long while. The same path of least resistance is unfortunately being taken in Europe as well. However, in Wisconsin’s case, there is a bright spot in that someone finally realized that the problem lies with the owners, not the dogs. However, like SarasMom well points out, that should apply to ALL breeds, not just those who have fallen in disgrace due to unmerited stigma.

I once surfed the net for many hours, for days in a row, to try and find a list of misdeeds performed by other breeds, like the glorified Golden Retrievers (my husband’s favorites, no less…) and such other can-do-no-wrong breeds. No luck . And it’s NOT because they don’t do any wrongs, but because there is no organization (here in the USA and elsewhere) that keeps track of dog offenses, by breed. One of my husband’s most venomous contentions to me is that Rottweilers KILL kids, the implication being, “Have you ever heard of a bird dog KILLING a kid?”. With no hard data on hand, how can you begin to fight this?

I insist that the media has hurt us immensely, by making a handful of incidents appear to be the norm, and parading carefully chosen “experts” to testify about the fact that there ARE certain breeds of dogs which are innately vicious. And that strategy did it. The dogs they focused on have fallen from the graces of an ignorant public as a result. And now, thousands upon thousands of hones, decent owners of such breeds have a heck of a time presenting the truth and seeing it understood and accepted. It reminds me of the saying in the old country: “one madman throws a rock into the lake, and ten wisemen can’t take it out.”

And yes, making changes takes money, of which there is always little… and it all gets me so mad and frustrated.

I wrote in one of my posts about the stonewalling a blind Australian encountered when he wanted to register Angel, his Rottie, as his guide dog. I said then and say it again now: the same thing would happen in the U.S. Why do you think that is? Because people with deep-seated prejudice against Rotties would rather die than see them redeemed. And, in my mind at least, what better way to redeem these dogs than to see them lead as many blind people as the fair-haired breeds (Golden Retrievers, Labs, etc.)?

Maybe we need to concentrate, with the support of every Rottie organization, on fighting and winning this battle. I think that once won, it will take care almost by itself of all the other “objections” to our breed, and of the constant obstacles laid in its path.

[LORHEL]

I totally agree with you on the ALL breed issue. The media has made things so much worse for the owners of large dogs over the recent years, and you DONT hear about the small or medium dogs, and when you do its always, in a RARE case, they act like it only happens every so often. Its just because they are smaller and don't inflict as much damage, but its there and I would love to see those statistics as well, but I doubt they keep track since they are so focused on our breeds. :(