Thanks to Hero Pit Bull, Michigan Town Ends Breed Ban

As Jamie Dopke began beating his girlfriend, Jamie Kraczkowski, two months ago, her Pit Bull, Isis, sprang into action.

“When my head got hit against the wall, she just grabbed his pant leg and she was done,” Kraczkowski, of Hazel Park, Mich., told WJBK. “She was done with him abusing me — and abusing her.”

Kraczkowski’s now ex-boyfriend stopped hitting her and left. Unfortunately, because Hazel Park enforced a breed ban, Krackowski and Isis also had to leave their home, or the hero dog would have been confiscated and euthanized.

With help from a GoFundMe account Kraczkowski created, the two were able to move to another town, where they’re both “doing great,” she told the Huffington Post this week.

Because breed-specific legislation (BSL), which includes Pit Bull bans, is so unfair — not to mention costly to enforce and proven to be ineffective in increasing public safety — it is opposed by President Obama and virtually all major animal welfare organizations: the ASPCA, AVMA, HSUS, etc., etc. For these reasons, the trend has been to repeal these useless bans.

The latest town to repeal its ban? Hazel Park. Last week, city officials voted unanimously to end it, thanks to Isis.

“We are really excited,” Courtney Protz-Sanders, whose Michigan’s Political Action Committee for Animals campaigned for the repeal, told the Huffington Post. “We’re happy.”

Hazel Park is not, however, eliminating BSL altogether. It will still impose special requirements for Pit Bull owners. The dogs must be licensed, pass behavioral assessment tests and be fenced properly, and their owners must have home insurance.

“I am very happy with this decision. But I think we still have a long way to go,” Mike Toma, a Hazel Park resident who has two Pit Bulls, told the Daily Tribune. After Kraczkowski’s story made news headlines in March, Toma was also given five days to relocate his dogs.

“If it comes between where I live and my dogs, it’s gonna be my dogs 10 times out of 10,” he told the Daily Tribune at the time.

Photo via GoFundMe.com