
The future of our dogs....
For people in Santa Clara County, California:
County Supervisor Ken Yeager is trying to get an ordinance passed that Pit Bulls must be spayed and neutered. This will be presented at the County meeting on tomorrow August 10th. If passed, this would apply to unincorporated areas of Santa Clara county. While we believe spaying and neutering is important to keep down the number of homeless pets, this ordinance will make it difficult for low income families to comply to this who can't afford these services. This brings about the potential for people to lose their dogs in addition to the fact that it's breed specific legislation, isolating one breed. Education on socializing/training and low/no cost programs for spay/neuter are far more helpful.
I feel that this was a knee jerk reaction to the Concord incident. Here's why I have a problem with that. Issues in the Concord situation:
1.Dog/child supervison seemed to be lacking.
2. Male dogs not neutered contained in a garage.
3 .Level of socialization was questionable in this case due to the fact that they were in the garage. Well socialized dogs are living in homes with their families...not the garage.
4.The man knew his dog was uncomfortable around kids.
5. In his interview from jail he specifically stated that his lack of knowledge about dog behavior is what caused this. That is apparent.
= not a specific breed's fault.
Another thing that bothers me is that I'm a dog trainer by trade. Just this last month there was a German Shepard that damaged a 17 yr old boy's leg. I'm assuming if he was 2 he would have been killed. This never made the papers and the boy's father was forgiving in this situation.
Another case this month was a Golden Retriever that bit a child in the arm damaging tendons causing disability. I hate to bring these things up but this was also never reported in the papers.
I see cases like these and the situations have similar circumstances such as above in all cases. NONE of the items have anything to do with breed......but species....humans.
Please contact:
Supervisor Don Gage - District 1
408-299-5010
don.gage@bos.sccgov.org
Supervisor George Shirakawa - District 2
408-299-5020
George.Shirakawa@bos.sccgov.org
Supervisor Dave Cortese - District 3
408-299-5030
dave.cortese@bos.sccgov.org
President/Supervisor Yeager - District 4
408-299-5040
ken.yeager@bos.sccgov.org
Supervisor Liz Kniss - District 5
408-299-5050
liz.kniss@bos.sccgov.org