Overturn Ban of Pit Bull Type Breeds in Miami-Dade County, FL

“Pit bulls” are being judged and punished because of human actions, this includes irresponsible owners who do not properly train and secure their dogs, the media for sensationalizing any incident related to these dogs regardless of how insignificant it is and hysteria on part of the general public that let their ignorance and fears take over their judgment without facts to back them up.

The current existing ban took effect in 1989 and Miami-Dade County stated and promised that banning Pit bull type breed dogs will reduce the numbers in serious dog attacks. This promise was impossible to keep.

Dog bite incidents (all breeds) in Miami-Dade County that resulted in victim's hospitalization ratio is higher than the in the rest of the State of Florida. When it comes to fatalities the current ban in Miami-Dade County is immaterial as dog related fatalities are rare, over the last 40 years there have been only two dog attack fatalities in Miami-Dade County one in 1972 before the breed ban was in effect and another in 2006, “Pit bulls” were “not” responsible for these fatalities.

We, who are in favor of the overturn of this BSL ordinance, are not blind to the fact and understand that a large breed dog is going to cause more damage than a small breed dog, but we also have to realize that all dogs have different temperaments as we humans do and that the breed doesn’t make the dog but the upbringing and care received. If a dog is trained to be vicious regardless of the breed that is what we are going to get, if it’s brought up in a disciplined and loving environment you will get a well-adjusted dog that can fit into our society.

When we humans invited dogs into our homes millennia ago, we took on the responsibility to provide and care for them; they exchanged their freedom for our homes. We have already betrayed that trust let us do something about it and prove to them and ourselves that their trust was not unfounded.

Ask your Florida legislator to re-file or co-sponsor HB 997 / SB 1322 in the next legislative session. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get a law passed. (Just ask Ohio!)

Contact your State Representative and Senator
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/myrepresentative.aspx

Join the Miami Coalition Against Breed-Specific Legislation to keep up with efforts to repeal Miami-Dade’s BSL: http://www.mcabsl.wildapricot.org/

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