Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Hedge-Morrell To Propose New Dog Laws
Posted by David Winkler-Schmit on Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 5:31 PM
With the recent spate of dog attacks, Council District D representative Cynthia Hedge-Morrell says the incoming city council needs to pass laws to combat the problem. She plans on introducing a spaying and neutering ordinance later this year, and she will also propose a law requiring owners of certain dangerous breeds, including pit bulls, to cage the dogs in kennels.
- “You can’t just keep sticking your head in the sand, and saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to offend this person,’ or ‘I’m going to offend that person.’”
- It’s not the first time Hedge-Morrell has tackled the issue.
- After a pit bull attack in 2008, Hedge-Morrell explored proposing an ordinance outlawing the breed in Orleans Parish. She says, however, the city’s law department told her the proposed legislation could be legally challenged in court, so the council rep collaborated with Louisiana SPCA director Ana Zorrilla on a different approach. Because unneutered, non-spayed, or “intact” dogs, are 2.6 times more likely to attack than neutered animals, Hedge-Morrell’s ordinance would have required owners to have their dogs fixed, or buy a breeder’s permit.
- Hedge-Morrell introduced the legislation to the council in September 2009, and she says she had the necessary four votes to pass the legislation.
- “Until the American Kennel Club came after me,” Hedge-Morrell says.
- Hedge-Morrell says after the AKC, breeders and other associations began a letter-writing campaign protesting the legislation, she withdrew the ordinance for consideration because there wasn’t enough council support to pass it. Hedge-Morrell still thinks it was a good bill because the fees and fines generated by the ordinance would have gone to the LASPCA to assist with animal control: overpopulation, random breeding and violent attacks. She says the city does not currently require breeders to hold permits.
- “So if you’re a professional breeder we don’t tax you,” Hedge-Morrell says. “If you’re a backyard breeder, we don’t tax you.”
- Without a dedicated funding stream for animal control — under budgetary constraints, the city couldn’t pay the LASPCA for services in the last two months of 2009 — Hedge-Morrell says unwanted and intact dogs will continue to roam the streets and attacks will continue.
- Ken Foster, local author (Dogs Who I Have Met: And the People They Found) who started the Sula Foundation, dedicated to the support of responsible pit bull ownership, says dog attacks happen because of abusive and neglectful owners, not because of the dog’s breed. He says the media unfairly hypes pit bulls as vicious animals, and that other dogs can also attack.
“If someone’s bitten by a pit bull, it’s reported by 500 media outlets,” Foster says. “But if somebody is bitten really bad by a black lab or a golden retriever, it’ll be reported maybe in the local paper and that’s all.”
Foster says he would like more low cost spaying and neutering options available to dog owners, but he’s unsure a spaying and neutering law would be effective.
“We just had two months in which the city refused to pay for animal control, so there was no animal control,” Foster says. “Now we’re trying to put in a mandatory spaying and neutering law that will be enforced, how?”
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Comments (7)
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I totally agree with Foster. A chihuahua is just as likely to attack someone as a pit bull, it's all a matter of how the owners have trained and handled the animal, not a matter of breed. Yes, there definitely needs to be more education and resources available here for pet owners, and I'm fully in support of people spaying and neutering... I've seen way too many stray dogs wandering the streets of this city. There are a lot of dog owners and animal lovers in this city and I think Hedge-Morrell is going about dealing with this problem in the wrong way. She's more likely to piss of her constituents than to fix the problem.
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A resource for low cost spaying and neutering in New Orleans: the Spay Nola program. http://southernanimalfoundation.org/custom_content/c_89838_spay_nola.html
The issue is a lack of animal control and oversight of irresponsible dog owners. How can the spca enforce new legislation when they can't and don't enforce what's in place now. How can you place added responsibilities to an already overstretched organization? If the spca had the funding to enforce and fine individuals who are violating current laws maybe we wouldn't have to create more uninforcebale laws.
Laws need to be passed that affect all dog owners not just singling out some based on breed. The real issue is irresponsible owners and dogs not being cared for properly. Increase education and spay/neutering availability and use laws that protect animals from misuse and abuse. BSL is not the way to do it.
First and foremost people need to quit making this a witchhunt on Pitbulls, half the time dogs that are reported as pitbulls attacking someone arn't even the correct breed of dog, 2nd of all it's the irresponsible owners that need to be punished and repremanded responsible owners and their dogs do not deserve to be punished for the actions of a few. Third This lady tryin to get BSL passed obviously knows NOTHING about the breed and as I said is on a witchhunt. Fourth do you have any Idea how much it costs to endorse BSL? And all you really succeed in with BSL is taking good dogs out of responsible homes the riff raff and KNUCKLEHEADS will find ways to keep dogs and use them for their own purposes. Spay neuter yes, ban an entire breed no thats racism and it should not be tolerated by any repsonsible dog owner of any breed period!
Before Ms. Hedge-Morrell starts pushing an unworkable law based on an untenable premise, I would suggest she do a little bit of reading about the mess created by mandatory spay-neuter laws and pit bull bans in Sioux Falls, SD; Denver; the UK; Ontario; Toledo, OH, etc. If you want fewer problems with dogs, get lots and lots of free/cheap spay/neuter available and publicize it well. Then find some funding for your Animal Control to enforce leash laws and dangerous dog laws. (Read up on the success we've had with that approach in Minneapolis-St. Paul.) Emotional approaches do not make good law, Ms. Hedge-Morrell.
