Hooray! Yet another city has ended its unfair Pit Bull ban.
The City Council of Overland Park, Kansas, voted unanimously Monday night to stop punishing certain dogs based solely on their looks or the breed(s) they happen to be. Overland Park was the last city in the Kansas City metro area to continue practicing breed-specific legislation (BSL), which are unfair laws, including breed bans, that single out certain dogs.
The city council voted to remove any language that specifies Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and American Pit Bull Terriers from its dangerous animal ordinance, as in the following example (yay!):
BSL has proven to be ineffective in accomplishing what it’s intended to do — increasing public safety — wherever it’s been enacted. It’s also very expensive to enforce. It’s also opposed by nearly every major animal welfare organization, including the ASPCA, AVMA, HSUS, etc.
Those are some very good reasons why there’s been a growing trend to end BSL around the country.
Prairie Village, another city in the Kansas City metro area, lifted its Pit Bull ban in February 2020.
In November 2020, Denver, which had one of the most notorious Pit Bull bans in the world, ended its 31-year ban, thanks to voters. Two months later, the city council of Aurora, the third-largest city in Colorado, decided to end its 15-year Pit Bull ban as well. And soon after that, Commerce City, Colo., also ended its Pit Bull ban.
Thank you, Overland Park City Council, for having the good wisdom to judge the deed, not the breed.
Photo: Those were my first two Pitties, Sophie and Larry, enjoying a mind meld back in the late 1990s.
If you don’t have a Pit Bull, Doberman, Rottweiler or another allegedly “dangerous” dog breed, you may not be aware that most major U.S. insurance companies refuse to provide home or rental insurance for the owners of these dogs.
Banning certain types of dogs based solely on their breed or appearance is often referred to as “breedism.” It’s not surprising that every major animal welfare organization, including the ASPCA, HSUS, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and others, opposes it because it unfairly punishes well-behaved dogs and responsible owners. Fortunately, breed-specific legislation (BSL), laws that ban certain dogs, has been repealed in most places where it was enacted, most notably in Denver last year.
Too bad most insurance companies aren’t part of that trend. According to an April 2021 Forbes article that surveyed 42 homeowners insurance companies, Pit Bulls, Dobermans, and Rottweilers are banned by 100% of these companies.
Why are insurance companies so breedist? “We are in the business of evaluating risk, and based on what we know, the dogs on our ‘uninsurable list’ pose a higher risk,” an unidentified Allstate Insurance representative told Psychology Today in 2014.
“Higher risk?” According to the AVMA’s “Dog Bite Risk and Prevention: The Role of Breed” report, the breeds that bite the most frequently include Jack Russell Terriers, Spaniels, Collies and Labrador Retrievers.
Yet not one of these breeds is banned by the 42 insurance companies surveyed by Forbes.
Could this be because insurance companies are racist as well as breedist? “The use of breed lists has a detrimental impact on three groups—uninformed consumers, people of color, and consumers of low or moderate means,” a coalition of animal welfare groups wrote in a November 2020 letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) urging an end to banned breed lists.
The group, which includes the Animal Defense League, American Kennel Club, Best Friends Animal Society and others, pointed out a strong correlation between Pit Bulls and the Black community.
“Scholars opine that this is especially true as it relates to breed-specific laws, which may be a product of the fear associated with stereotypical images and activities of minority groups,” the group wrote. “This fear may also be associated with an insurance carrier’s choice of which breeds to include on its list.”
It is currently illegal for insurance companies to use dog breed profiling in states including Michigan and Pennsylvania. It’s also illegal in Ohio, but owners of Pit Bulls and some other breeds must buy at least $100,000 of liability insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III).
The good news is that there is pending legislation in several states that would put an end to this blacklisting of breeds by insurance companies. In New York State, Assembly Bill A4075, which prohibits insurers from refusing to cover certain dog breeds, will hopefully be signed into law soon.
Breed-Friendly Insurance Companies
If you happen to have a dog whose breed has been declared “dangerous” by an insurance company, or if you’re disgusted after reading about this and want to change insurance providers, be aware that State Farm, the largest home insurance company in the country, doesn’t ban any breeds.
“State Farm does not ask what breed or type of dog a person owns when writing policies,” spokesperson Heather Paul, who happens to have two Pit Bulls, told Forbes. “Any dog, regardless of breed, can bite, and most bites are the perfect storm of situation and circumstance. People often put themselves and others at risk, and dogs are blamed. That’s why State Farm focuses on dog bite prevention education rather than breed restrictions.”
The following insurance companies also don’t discriminate against any breeds, according to BADRAP, a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing the future of Pit Bulls as cherished family companions. Just be aware that agents from independently run offices may have a different policy.
Sgt. Stubby — who was believed to be a Pit Bull mix — was the most decorated war dog in U.S. history. Here are some interesting things to know about this four-legged hero.
1. Stubby was a stray dog, wandering around a Yale University field, when he was rescued in 1917 by John Robert Conroy, a soldier being trained for World War I combat.
2. Conroy didn’t want to leave Stubby behind when his unit was shipped off to France. He concealed his dog inside an overcoat and smuggled him onto his ship.
3. Once he was discovered, Stubby became the “unofficial official mascot” of the 102nd Infantry, 26th (Yankee) Division in France.
4. He was hit in the leg by a grenade in early 1918, but that didn’t stop him. He kept other injured soldiers company as he recovered. (Perhaps he was the world’s first therapy dog!)
5. Not long after his leg healed and he returned to the trenches, he was sprayed with mustard gas. Did this stop our resilient hero? No way. In fact, he remembered the scent and barked to warn the soldiers of subsequent gas attacks, saving many lives.
6. Not only did his sense of smell save lives, but so did his sense of hearing. He was aware of the whine of artillery shells before the soldiers could hear it, so he would bark to let them know they should take cover.
7. Because he was a lot shorter than the other soldiers, he could easily scoot under barbed wire in so-called “no man’s lands” to bring supplies to wounded soldiers.
8. When a spy began speaking German to Stubby, the dog chomped onto the seat of his pants and held on until his fellow soldiers arrived.
9. He spent a total of 18 months in France, participating in 17 battles on the Western Front.
10. Legend has it that he even saved a little girl from getting hit by a car in Paris by pushing her out of harm’s way.
11. He was the first – and only – military dog to be promoted to sergeant.
12. At the end of World War I, Conroy smuggled him back to the United States, where the dog got a well-deserved hero’s welcome. He met presidents, led parades, and became an honorary lifetime member of the American Legion, Red Cross and YMCA.
13. In 1926, around the age of 10, he died peacefully in Conroy’s arms.
15. Sadly, this hero dog wouldn’t be allowed to live in housing on Army bases in the United States today. Pit Bulls, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Doberman Pinschers and some other dogs are banned from military housing because these breeds are allegedly “dangerous.” But the only thing “dangerous” is the military’s unfair stereotyping of these dogs.
This story, one of i Still Love Dogs’ most popular, was originally posted on Memorial Day 2015. The computer-animated feature film, “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero,” was released in 2018 and as of November 2019 is available on HBO.
When I saw a headline earlier today about an Upper West Side co-op in New York City requiring DNA tests for its dog tenants, I assumed the purpose was to identify poo that had not been picked up by their irresponsible pet parents. (Yes, this is a thing.)
I assumed wrong. The DNA tests are for something much more sinister.
Pet parents living in the luxury tower at 170 West End Ave. must have their veterinarians confirm the pedigree of their dogs. For mixed breeds, the vet must indicate the percentage of each breed. And if the vet is unsure of what breed(s) a dog happens to be, that dog must take a DNA test.
Why?
Because certain dogs “are not permitted to reside in the building based upon documented information regarding their tendency towards aggressiveness,” according to the new discrimination policy the co-op board sent to tenants last month.
Surprisingly, among the 27 banned breeds are small dogs, including Maltese, Pomeranians and Shih Tzu. Pit Bulls, German Shepherds, Saint Bernards and Basset Hounds are also prohibited.
Any dog who is at least 50 percent of any of the banned breeds cannot live in the building.
‘It’s Like Dog Racism’
“It’s like dog racism, essentially,” one disgruntled tenant told DNAinfo.com. “It’s beyond offensive. It’s intrusive.”
The tenant refused to be identified because, like many other pet parents in the building, he or she fears the negative publicity could affect their property values.
The co-op board president, Robert Sadin, has refused to comment on the new policy, as has the property manager, FirstService Residential.
“Mark my words, there is going to be a lawsuit for dog discrimination,” Sylvia Shapiro, a lawyer and author of the book “The New York Co-op Bible,” told DNAInfo.com.
“The problem with dogs is not the dogs, it’s the owners,” she said. “There seems to be a lot of irrational people around.”
I propose that DNA tests be required for the co-op board, based on their tendency towards ignorance.
“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
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