Barstow, CA: Council to vote on breed-specific spay/neuter, April 4

Breed-specific spay/neuter comes with all the ethical, legal, and other quandaries that any kind of breed-specific law comes with, including and especially the question of proper breed identification.

If you visit the article link, you will notice a photo of a “pit bull” that would be a target of this ordinance–except that the so-called “pit bull,” labeled as such by animal control, looks (to me) more like a Boxer X or Dalmatian X than it looks like any of the “pit bull” breeds. The term “pit bull” encompasses a vague, wide, and highly subjective group of dogs; not all people agree on what constitutes a “pit bull.” Dog owners often do not know whether their dog is “pit bull” enough to fall under the law, making it difficult to comply. The law is unequally applied.

Back when this ordinance was first suggested, Barstow council was given the option to make it apply to all dogs, regardless of breed or physical appearance. They chose instead to single out and discriminate against “pit bulls” and their owners.

All alerts for Barstow: http://stopbsl.com/?s=barstow

(Barstow website currently down; this contact info is from last year’s alert.)
Online contact form: http://user.govoutreach.com/barstow/
City Council Member Timothy Silva, tsilva@barstowca.org
City Council Member Tim Saenz, tsaenz@barstowca.org
City Council Member Willie Hailey Sr., whailey@barstowca.org
Mayor Pro Tem Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre, jmcintyre@barstowca.org
City Manager Richard Rowe, rrowe@barstowca.org

Email quicklist
tsilva@barstowca.org; tsaenz@barstowca.org; whailey@barstowca.org; jmcintyre@barstowca.org; rrowe@barstowca.org

The council meeting will take place on April 4, 7:30 PM, in City Council chambers, 220 E. Mountain View, Barstow.

City Council to vote on required pit bull altering, noisy animals

April 03, 2011 9:14 AM
By KAREN JONAS, staff writer

BARSTOW • The City Council is scheduled to vote on two separate ordinances that will regulate noisy animals and require owners to spay or neuter pit bulls and pit bull mixes at its meeting on Monday.

The subcommittee that works with the Humane Society in the development of animal ordinances decided to restrict the ordinance to pit bulls because most service calls involve the breed and most dogs held at the shelter are pit bulls, said Oliver Chi, assistant city manager. Pit bulls are also hard to adopt out and are often euthanized at the Barstow Humane Society, said Chi. […]

Full article retrieved 4/3/11 from http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/city-10593-council-altering.html