City of Ventura, CA: BSL passed

Ventura city council members voted for mandatory spay/neuter for “pit bulls” during its council meeting this week.

StopBSL takes no position on mandatory spay/neuter as long as it is not breed-specific. Unfortunately, Ventura’s breed-specific MSN brings with it all of the problems that are associated with any BSL: unnecessary discrimination against citizens based on their dog’s physical appearance; subjective, nonscientific visual guesses about a dog’s possible breed, resulting in unequal application of the law and resource-consuming lawsuits and court challenges; enforcement difficulties; and so on. (Think animal shelter workers can reliably identify “pit bulls”? Check out this study done by Maddie’s Fund.)

Some city officials have already expressed concerns that the law will be difficult to enforce. And, of course, BS-MSN has not solved any problems anywhere else it has been implemented.

City of Ventura Mayor and City Council
mike.tracy@cityofventura.net, cheitmann@ci.ventura.ca.us, nandrews@ci.ventura.ca.us, bbrennan@ci.ventura.ca.us, jmonahan@ci.ventura.ca.us, cmorehouse@ci.ventura.ca.us, cweir@ci.ventura.ca.us

All alerts for Ventura (county and cities): http://stopbsl.com/?s=ventura

Ventura council approves pit bull ordinance

By Arlene Martinez
Posted May 23, 2012 at 5:12 p.m.

Despite concerns that enforcement might be difficult, the Ventura City Council voted 6-1 on Monday to require pit bulls to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 16 weeks.

[…] Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers fall under the “pit bull” category. Dogs used in law enforcement and purebreds registered with the American Kennel Club, United Kennel Club or “other national registry” are exempt from the ordinance. […]

Full article retrieved 5/24/12 from http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/may/23/ventura-council-approves-pit-bull-ordinance/