Scully says "There are no bad dogs!"
A dog touched my life in January of 2005. At the time, I didn’t consider myself a dog person, but a positive experience watching a friend’s dog made me want to get one of my own. I picked her out because even as a 4-month old puppy, she was calm, sweet, and affectionate. I named her Scully, and not only did she teach me to love all dogs, she taught me what it means to have a pit bull in the family. Stigma, discrimination, and ignorance all came with her, but her love eclipsed it all, and she won the heart of everyone who met her.
Yara says "Sign our petition!"
My experience with Scully left me sure that we need to end breed-specific discrimination in Tempe. Not only is it bad policy, as time and time again research shows that discriminatory policies based on dog breed aren’t effective. But in addition, breed discrimination and bans lead to many unintended consequences – including systematic abuse.
Recently, the Centers for Disease Control looked at twenty years of data around dog bites and breeds. The CDC found that fatal attacks make up an exceedingly small proportion of dog bite injuries. What is more, they found it is nearly impossible to tally bite rates among breeds. So why have we singled out a handful of breeds to deem “vicious?”
Through discrimination or outright banning, “vicious” breeds find themselves in a black market, where no one is looking out for them, but only looking to profit at the dog’s expense. Good dogs are often sold to bad people who use them for excessive breeding, or worse, fighting. The discrimination of dogs by breed directly leads to the abuse of that breed, there is no way around it.
If you believe as I do that no one should have to choose between housing and their furry family member, if you believe as I do that there are no bad dogs, just bad owners, then please sign the petition below.
Add your name to our Pit Bull Petition, and I will personally deliver our collective voices to the Mayor and Tempe City Council this spring.
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