Twenty days after I sent to the Bristol mayor a request for clarification/more information, I have received the following email from David Mills, the councilman identified in the Bristol Press as the official who suggested a “ban on dangerous breeds.”
Thank you for your concern about this issue. The report in the newspaper was totally blown out of proportion. I had received many complaints about dogs doing their business and the owners not picking up after them. Complaints about multiple dogs in one area, breeding in multi family buildings etc.
I asked the Corp. Counsel to look at what other towns were doing about this and other dog related problems.. The reporter chose to write that we were looking to ban certain breeds of dogs. This was never mentioned and not being considered at this time.
Dave Mills
If you have been following the events in Bristol, you will recall the very long news article that Bristol Press published on November 6, titled “Dangerous dogs: City considering ban on certain breeds,” which discussed extensively the possibility of a ban or restrictions on certain breeds (“pit bulls” in particular), and in which the reporter quoted city officials talking about the feasibility of a breed ban.
It is very hard to reconcile the news article with Mills’ email—especially in light of Mills’ statement that a breed ban “was never mentioned”—unless most of the news article was fabricated. (We would hope that is not the case.)
However, we would note that Mills and the reporter agree on at least one basic idea: Bristol officials are looking into possible ordinances to alleviate “dog problems.”
In previous Bristol alerts, StopBSL asked that local residents correspond with council and get involved in the council meetings to guide any possible discussions away from breed-specific measures and toward effective breed-neutral solutions. Although Mills’ email clarifies that no BSL is under consideration at this time, we believe public involvement is still necessary and beneficial. We encourage Bristol-area residents to remain engaged in the dog ordinance discussions to ensure that the outcome is indeed breed-neutral and reasonable.
Many thanks to the locals in and around Bristol who have already gotten involved in the dog ordinance discussions and who are helping to guide the council to reasonable breed-neutral solutions.
StopBSL would appreciate updates from a resident or local who attends future council or committee meetings.
All alerts for Bristol: http://stopbsl.com/?s=%22bristol%2C+ct%22
Fred M. Kray
krisdiaz9
Stop BSL 
Hello, I am a Bristol, CT resident who is only a vet tech. Once I have seen a mere article posted in the local paper before this article I’ve jumped on the band wagon of emailing officials, I also have written & spoken to several officials & they all agree that this writer did in fact fabricate the entire “ban” I agree that they can still possibly look into those options, so again I’ve continued to offer education and have gotten several well known animal groups envolving with educating as well. A NY animal rights group is coming to do a 2 hour power point presentation on December 13 @ 6pm to further assist & last I was told personally is this topic may or may not be further discussed at the actual ordience meeting on Dec 21st. So hopefully if you keep posting to those who follow to keep writing in respective educational materials & letters, along with all animal groups, and those of anyone wishing to attend these meetings we all can work together to actively rule out any possible ban. Thanks for all of your posted information and for putting all of this out there!
They are in fact considering this legislation, I do live in Bristol and I KNOW for a fact that there are many many people breeding irresponsibly out here, and although I don’t agree with a ban , I do think this town needs to take a look at the problem some of its residents are contributing to for financial gain, there are people breeding in multifamily apartments, even a local spanish market had to put a large “NO dogs allowed” sign on the front door because ppl kept bringing these puppies inside. And months later many of these dogs end up getting put down when Animal Control comes across them, a unpublished situation happened not far from here (Downtown Bristol) earlier this year where the police actually shot dead 2 pitt’s that were claimed to be aggressive, they had gotten loose and barked at someone, then ran home, where the police shot them on their owners multifamily porch. The girl who owned the dogs was in fact breeding them, and was left with several puppies after the dogs parents were killed. There are numerous situations of people not picking up after their dogs out here, and even more tragic the situations are getting worse when we talk about breeding. I don’t think an outright ban is in order, but I do think we need to address unregistered dogs and unlicensed breeding.