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<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- <BR>From: ADOA ADMIN <> <BR>To: big4dogs@comcast.net <BR>Subject: ADOA NEWS <BR>Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 23:21:08 +0000 <BR><BASE href=http://www.adoa.org>
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<TD style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; COLOR: #00008b; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,sans-serif">ADOA NEWS</TD></TR>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city w:st="on"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>MASSACHUSETTS...URGENT</STRONG></FONT></SPAN></st1:city></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><st1:city w:st="on"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></st1:city></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><st1:city w:st="on"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Canton</STRONG></FONT></SPAN></st1:city><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG> aims to muzzle pit bulls<BR><BR><BR></STRONG>By L.E. CAMPENELLA<BR>The Patriot Ledger<BR><BR>If you own a pit bull, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canton</st1:place></st1:city> might not be the town for you.<BR><BR>Tonight's town meeting will decide whether to impose strict restrictions,<BR>such as mandatory confinement, special licenses, muzzles and insurance<BR>requirements, and create a limit of one pit bull per family.<BR><BR>Initially, selectmen planned to ban the breed, exempting dogs that already<BR>live in town.<BR><BR>Selectman Avril Elkort said a situation about a year ago, when three pit<BR>bulls kept getting loose and roaming a neighborhood, prompted the new bylaw.<BR><BR>''People are totally petrified by these dogs,'' Elkort said.<BR><BR><st1:city
w:st="on">Canton</st1:city> isn't alone in its attempt to rein in problem dogs, but animal<BR>control officers, experts and even those who have survived pit bull attacks<BR>say <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canton</st1:place></st1:city> is barking up the wrong tree.<BR><BR>Ban stand<BR><BR>Scott Giacoppo, deputy director of advocacy for the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:state> Society<BR>for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said a pit bull-only ban gives<BR>residents a false sense of security and will cost the town in the end.<BR><BR>''What do you do when a German shepherd, Dalmatian, Rottweiller or a cocker<BR>spaniel attacks someone?''<BR><BR>Giacoppo said breed bans have been overturned by courts across the country,<BR>costing cities and towns thousands of dollars.<BR><BR>''What you'll see is pit bull owners lining up to test the constitutionality<BR>of the law,'' he said.<BR><BR><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"
>Canton</st1:place></st1:city>'s animal control officer, Ellen Barnett, said she was not invited to<BR>help draft the new code and will argue against it.<BR><BR>In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Randolph</st1:place></st1:city>, town meeting voters next month will decide a vicious dog law<BR>ordinance that would put the bite on dogs that attack humans or other<BR>animals. The ordinance calls for penalties ranging from muzzling, keeping<BR>the dogs in fully enclosed cages and sterilization to tattooing, implanting<BR>a microchip to identify the dog as vicious and euthanasia.<BR><BR><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hingham</st1:place></st1:city> voters last week decided to prohibit any dog that has been banned or<BR>removed from any other city or town.<BR><BR><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Marshfield</st1:place></st1:city>, which has been plagued by attacks on people and other dogs over<BR>the last two years, has formed a committee to draft a dangerous dog
law. So<BR>has <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Brockton</st1:place></st1:city>.<BR><BR><st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>, <st1:city w:st="on">New Bedford</st1:city> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> are among cities that have strict rules on<BR>pit bulls and other vicious dogs.<BR><BR><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denver</st1:place></st1:city> banned the breed in 1989. It is rounding up the terriers and has<BR>killed hundreds each year, which has forced owners to turn to an<BR>''underground railroad'' to get their pets out of the city.<BR><BR>Problems with dog attacks, especially pit bulls, are not just a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region><BR>problem. The breed was banned in <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region> in 1991 and in 2005 in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ontario</st1:place></st1:state>.<BR><BR>Aggressive breed<BR><BR>T
he pit bull has a broad chest, a big head and powerful jaws. The breed has<BR>gained notoriety for vicious maulings and sometimes fatal attacks on other<BR>dogs and humans.<BR><BR>Popular culture has made them a status symbol and the favored breed of<BR>gang-bangers, drug dealers and dogfight trainers.<BR><BR>Nicholas Dodman, an animal behaviorist and head of the Animal Behavior<BR>Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts University, said pit bulls, like<BR>many other breeds, have blood lines going back generations that make them<BR>more aggressive than other types of dogs.<BR><BR>With proper training, care and a responsible owner, Dodman said they can be<BR>''cupcakes,'<WBR></WBR>' but countless are trained to be vicious, or stroke an ego,<BR>especially for young men.<BR><BR>''It's an extension of their masculinity,<WBR></WBR>'' Dodman said. ''It's almost like<BR>packing a gun.''<BR><BR>Dodman said the main problem in a pit bull attack is that the dogs go for<BR>the throat of thei
r prey and don't let go.<BR><BR>Pit bulls, Dodman said, are not a breed but a mix of bulldogs and another<BR>breed, such as a boxer or mastiff.<BR><BR>He said for centuries bulldogs were trained in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> for use in<BR>bullfighting.<BR><BR>''They bite into the nose of a bull and don't let go,'' Dodman said. ''The<BR>bull could whip them around like a rag doll and they wouldn't let go.''<BR><BR>Problems arrive<BR><BR>The MSPCA's Giacoppo points to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denver</st1:place></st1:city> as an example of chaos from a breed<BR>restriction.<BR><BR>He said it has made criminals out of normally law-abiding residents and<BR>monsters out of hundreds of loving and non-violent pit bulls.<BR><BR>Meanwhile, Giacoppo said, the gang-bangers, drug dealers and dogfight<BR>trainers - leading owners of vicious pit bulls - relish the ban.<BR><BR>''There's nothing cooler than having a dog
that breaks the law,'' Giacoppo<BR>said.<BR><BR>Some of the <st1:city w:st="on">Denver</st1:city> problems have already arrived in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">South</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Shore</st1:placetype></st1:place> towns.<BR><BR>Last year <st1:city w:st="on">Marshfield</st1:city> selectmen ordered the destruction of a pit bull owned<BR>by <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Marshfield</st1:place></st1:city>'s Louis Carpenito after several biting incidents.<BR><BR>Carpenito said he will fight the order ''all the way to the Supreme Court.''<BR><BR>Thomas Rolls' two pit bulls were condemned last year by <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Marshfield</st1:place></st1:city>'s<BR>selectmen after an attack on a Labrador retriever.<BR><BR>Rolls packed up and moved with the dogs and hasn't been heard from since.<BR><BR>Terrence Callahan, who was watching the <st1:place w:st="on">Labrador</st1:place> for his sister-in-law, said<BR>communit
ies have every right to enact dog laws, but limiting them to pit<BR>bulls or other breeds is short-sighted.<BR><BR>''If a dog is a problem, look at the situation, not the type of dog it is,''<BR>Callahan said.<BR><BR>L.E. Campenella may be reached at <mailto:</FONT><A href="http://webmailb.netzero.net/webmail/new/8?folder=Inbox&msgNum=00007hk0:0016DdKT000030V0&block=1&msgNature=all&msgStatus=all&count=1178021167&content=central#"><FONT color=#0066cc size=3>lcampenella@<WBR></WBR>ledger.com</FONT></A><FONT size=3>><BR></FONT><A href="http://webmailb.netzero.net/webmail/new/8?folder=Inbox&msgNum=00007hk0:0016DdKT000030V0&block=1&msgNature=all&msgStatus=all&count=1178021167&content=central#"><FONT color=#0066cc size=3>lcampenella@<WBR></WBR>ledger.com</FONT></A><FONT size=3> .<BR><BR>Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger<BR>Transmitted Monday, April 30, 2007<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></TD></TR>
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