News
Dangerous Dogs Summit Kicks Off
October 27, 2006, 12:0AM MT
By Michelle Buckalew
October 27, 2006
October 27, 2006
A three-day Dangerous Dogs Summit kicked off with comments from a variety of people, including a prosecutor and an animal control officer, as well as Best Friends representatives.
The issue at hand is whether breed ban legislation is a viable solution against so-called “dangerous dogs.”
In the No More Homeless Pets movement a few years ago, cities and states got to the point where they were working together, Michael Mountain, president of Best Friends, told the 100 attendees at the conference in Denver, Colorado. “Everybody was working together -- humane societies, animal control, rescue groups -- in strategic programs."
Today, Mountain said, with the breed specific proposals, "We have, on the one hand, the people who want to ban dangerous breeds and, on the other hand, people saying you shouldn’t ban specific breeds. Best Friends did not come to this with some major presentation we want to launch. This gathering is interactive all the way.”
Paul Berry, CEO of Best Friends, pointed out that the issue is a complicated one.
“This is about all of us sorting through the myriad of issues,” Berry said. “Best Friends does not advocate for breed specific legislation. Nor do we advocate for any kind of elimination of any breed. Michael talked about these two extremes. There’s a lot in the middle. This weekend, we’re going to try to get to the sources of the problem.”
Because people on either side are so splintered by the issue, “We’re going to try to do whatever we can to work toward some meaningful consensus on all this,” Berry continued. “This weekend is the start of this conversation to pull together a consensus and not back down from it.”
Jim Crosby, a canine aggression expert, pointed out, “Dog attacks and bites have become an issue. But how much of this is really hysteria and how much is really a problem?”
Dog bites sound like a big problem. But Crosby said it's an issue that needs to be put in context.
“We have about 20 fatal attacks a year,” he said. “Your odds are about one in 50 million of being killed in a dog attack. You have a better chance of dying in the shower than you do by your neighbor’s dog. It is a problem but it’s not as bad as they want to present it to.”
Francis Battista, a founder of Best Friends, noted that breed specific laws are “a cop out in a lot of ways. It’s the easy, lazy thing to do to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to ban a breed.’”
Claudine Williams, an animal law attorney and a former prosecutor, agreed: “Banning breeds puts a Band-aid on the problem. They’re overreaching and vague laws.”
That’s why the issue is so important today, Mountain said: “We want to come up with something that really works. We’re coming at this with different points of view, and something we can work with.”
Pictured: Michael Mountain addressing attendees of the Dangerous Dogs Summit.
Story and photo by Cathy Scott
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