A resident in Gainesville, GA, has asked city council what she needs to do to get a breed ban passed. Council has decided to do some research with local animal control.
If you live in or around Gainesville, please reach out to council members and respectfully assist them with their research. Explain why breed-specific laws are ineffective, unfair, expensive, and difficult to enforce. Provide them with acceptable breed-neutral alternatives.
Contact info for city council: citycouncil@gainesville.org
Next council meeting: May 1
Gainesville woman wants ban on pit bulls
By B.J. Williams Editor
Posted: Friday, April 20th 2012 at 10:41amGAINESVILLE – […] Jean Brannon appeared this week at a Gainesville City Council meeting to ask council members what steps she needs to take to have the dogs outlawed.
“Do I need to do a petition? Do I need to start going door to door? Do I need to get somebody on every street to go to their neighbors and sign something? What do we need to do to get rid of them,” she asked. […]
Councilwoman Ruth Bruner suggested the council do some research with local animal authorities before giving Brannon any advice on how to proceed.
Full article retrieved 4/23/12 from http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=247751
Thanks to Jodi for the heads up!
Fred M. Kray
krisdiaz9
Stop BSL 
If I were in charge, I would institute the following plan:
*Enforce leash laws.
*Create a website where people can easily and anonymously report dog fighting rings and/or problematic dogs.
*Create a small task force whose only job is to investigate and break up dog fighting rings and investigate owners of reported dogs.
*Stiffen penalties for dog fighting and other forms of dog abuse and neglect.
*Teach the public how to properly respond to off-leash dogs.
Making something illegal does not work to curb the behavior of people who already break the law. For instance, banning pit bulls will only result in law-abiding citizens not owning them. It won’t have any effect on drug dealers, dog fighters, or gangsters owning them. And those are precisely the people who create dangerous dogs.
I agree. BSL is a law that punishes tax paying citizen’s who responsibly pay their taxes, take care of their home and property, contribute to their community, and take care of their dogs by providing good care and love. In addition to the ideas suggested on finding solutions that will stop dog bites, I would like to add: Teach the public about dogs and dog behavior. i.e. a dog growling and barking at you is not a vicious dog if she is doing so because you are a stranger and she is guarding her puppies. Dogs bite for reasons. Educate the public on taking care of their pets. I also would like to suggest that everyone has to have a liscence to own a dog/a permit…in order to obtain the permit, they must go to obedience class and dog/owner education classes that are led by qualified people. Why should you be able to get a dog if you don’t vet it, if you keep it outside and never play with it. For what reason does a person like this deserve a dog. BSL is a lame law that basically tells me as a citizen that politicians don’t want to work…instead they are just following the fad of BSL…BEING SO LAZY that killing a dog and requiring outrageous insurance fees to own a particular breed is the most intelligent and empathic response they have to a dog biting. I say vote these people out of office and get some one in there who has a brain and a heart. Be Active, don’t complain. Write your legislat ors and tell them you are not going to put up with BSL!
The incident invoving her grandson was not even in Gainesville. I am sorry that this dog attacked her grandson, but banning a breed of dog is in no way an effective way to go about it (in my opinion). . Why would you try to ban a breed when you have not had any issues with any dog in your town, (according to the article) First we had the rotties, the shepherds, the pinchers, and now the pit bulls. There will always be a dog that someone claims to be dangerous. We have humans that are dangerous as well, can we ban them?
Any breed of dog can be vicious when they have been mistreated, abused, raised to attack, or is starving. A dog will go on the attack when feeling threatened, or when the owner or owner’s family is being threatened. Dogs are loyal and they are there to protect.
If there is a ban on a certain breed, one can be assured that the banned breed will appeal to dishonest people and those people will then breed and sell them in a black market, which will be especially horrible for these dogs and will become, through no fault of their own, worse off.
How do you enforce this ordinance? Will you go to every house and do a home inspection? For what? What if you have a dog that has been banned and has not had any issues with anyone? Are you going to euthanize that dog for no reason? That is absurd.
Dogs only behave as they are taught. The city needs to enforce that dogs be on leashes. I would also like a law passed that all animals be spayed or neutered. Stricter penalties on the owner who does not follow the law and more crack downs on dog fighting.