BSL New Mexico, is your breed on this list? Mine is!!!

[DarknessDivine]

BSL Introduced in New Mexico [Wednesday, January 26, 2005] Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort last week introduced the "Pit Bull Breeding Ban Act" (S188). Provisions of the bill will place severe restrictions on ownership and acquisition of a "pit bull" (defined as a Pit Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, or dog identifiable as or known as a pit bull. Owners of these dogs must not:
Acquire a pit bull after July 1, 2005
Breed a pit bull either privately or commercially
Keep existing pit bulls unless they are
Spayed or neutered
Licensed at a cost of $250 per year
Kept indoors or outside in a six-foot-tall iron or steel pen with roof
Chained and muzzled when off the owner's property
Covered by a $100,000 liability insurance policy or surety bond
Pit bull owners will face $1000 fine if their dog is found at large.

In addition, the bill automatically declares the following breeds "dangerous" and subjects them to additional fines and restrictions:
Akita, Alaskan Malamute, American or "Old Country" Bull Dog, Boxer, Presa Canario, Chow Chow, Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd, Great Dane, Rottweiler, Siberian Husky and wolf-hybrids. Finally, S188 would impose new fines on owners of any dogs that bite.
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Over at my site we are doing an e-mail campaign. I have already emailed just about everyone involved and that will be voting on this...

[elegy]

when are these legislators going to figure out that all this breed banning plain and simple does not work??

(and why do they think they'll be able to enforce it when they don't manage to enforce things like leash laws and licensing?)

*sigh*

in good news, though, the proposed bsl in georgia has been shot down.

[DarknessDivine]

Thank god

[ChiChi]

wow! its the deed not the breed! i can believe they said all those dogs were dangerous! and dont all dogs bite when threated???

[Smooshie]

Darkness, if you read Newcastles post in the bsl thread on the Boxer board, apparently the New Mexico proposed BSL is being shot down as well....

[DarknessDivine]

Yeah..here is a quote from it:

Just got a post from the BSL Group that Georgia's Rep. Williams is
withdrawing support for his Pit Bull ban bill, HB 78, and is expected
to withdraw the bill altogether. The governor of Georgia is a former
veterinarian, and an active member of the AVMA, and is against BSL.
Rep. Williams plans to introduce another bill at a later time, which
hopefully will be a non-breed-specific dangerous dog bill.

On the Western front, New Mexico's Sen. Beffort is not getting any
support with her Pit Bull ban, which also lists about a dozen other
breeds as "dangerous", either. The state's governor is expected to
achieve passage of his non-breed-specific dangerous dog law.

YAY!!! I did email everyone she suggested last night too..lol

[ChiChi]

i rele hope all of these bans get shot down! anyway i could help???

[PitBullie09]

YAY! Thats Great

[flyndog]

As somebody who has lived in two states where dog fighting is a popular sport and gang members purposely make them unsuitable as pets, I've got to say that restricting certain breeds that are used in this "sport" is not *necessarily* a bad idea. The "deed" is already against the law. Trying to catch these slugs is nearly impossible. *If* a municipality is having a real problem, they owe it to the citizens and the dogs to do what they can to stop it. Having said that, I am against willy-nilly BSL just because a few concerned citizens or legislators perceive a breed as dangerous.
Kit (Flame Suit on)

[elegy]

but does banning pit bulls do anything whatsoever to stop people who are participating in illegal acts already? i mean, come on. if they're illegally fighting dogs, they're not going to stop because pit bulls are outlawed. they'll either have them anyway, or move on to a different breed. and you're still doing nothing to stop the problem and you're still punishing innocent owners and innocent dogs.

what they need is to give these punishments that are handed down on dogfighters some teeth. make it hurt a little bit. a fine on these guys who are making bigtime money off dogfighting or drugs or whatever doesn't mean anything.

there is extensive bsl throughout ohio and there is still a major dog fighting problem there. it just does not work.

[DarknessDivine]

I am against any law that tries to force the average law abiding dog owner from buying the breed they love. The government has their nose in our business enough and I'll be marching to the white house if the start telling people what sorts of dogs they can own. IMO it is just another example of the people trying to get rid of things they fear.

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

To me this is like locking your house or car....it keeps the honest people honest but does nothing to stop those who could care less about the law.

This type of "law" does nothing but keep the honest from their breed of choice. Breed banning does nothing to stop those who choose to ignore the laws already in place on dog fighting, if there were more harsh punishments, more animal welfare acts in place and more money put into staffing those enforcement agencies that can do something they'd be off to a much better start. jmo

[BellFounder]

banning breeds is unnecessary but i do think the dangerous dogs laws in most countries need tightening up. A labrador ran into our garden and bit my middle daughter a couple of years ago, she has permenant scarring on her arm and could have been killed if we had not managed to pull the dog off her yet this dog is still alive and still running around our old neighbourhood. It is an absolute outrage. To my mind any dog that bites a human being should at the very least be muzzled and on a leash at all times when out of doors and should really be destroyed automatically unless the owner can prove the dog was being cruelly provoked.
I am all for stricter licensing laws as well.
Also - boxers, dangerous? give me a break.

[DarknessDivine]

LOL...Well my 2 boxers are vicious..that is why I want more..lol...
Geeez I dunno when they will understand a dog isn't dangerous just because it looks dangerous..

[Smooshie]

Breed banning is just another witch hunt ....it does nothing to solve the dangerous dog/dogfighting problem...I agree, dangerous dog laws should be tighter, and penalties for human dogfight offenders should be stiffer, but Breed specific legislation does nothing...it is a temporary fix at best. Serious offenders will just move on to yet another 'tough' looking breed...so what do we do? keep banning until there are no legal breeds left to own??? Nonsense. Another thing about BSL that chaps my a*s is the fact that the majority of the people that push for these laws wouldn't know a Pitbull if it jumped up and licked them in the face....take the proposed BSL Bill (Bill 132) in Ontario...Under that Bill the defination of a Pitbull includes:

pit bull terrier
Staffordshire bull terrier
American Staffordshire terrier
American pit bull terrier
any member of a class of dogs that have an appearance and physical characteristics that are substantially similar to dogs referred to in any of clauses (a) to (d); ("pit bull")

How ludicrous is that??? That could be any short haired muscular breed or mix....

The bottom line is that if we allow BSL to continue , eventually it will directly effect us all....