Mummy sez she kredits Kouncilmin Kaptain and Dunne fer werking behind the seens to remoove the stoopid bsl from the noo dawg rooles.  She also thanks Kouncilmin Steffen cuz he did not like the stoopid bsl eether.

She also sez thank yoo to my pal Dozer’s Mummy fer inspiring her that like minded peeple kin werk together a make a difrinse.  Yoo kin vizit wun of Dozer’s Mummy’s websites at http://stopbsl.com too see sum of the gud werk she doez.

There were lots of peeple at the meeting last night, and frum the soundz of it, they were all pretty eggcited.  Check owt this viddeyo from Fox Newz Chicago!

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/20100310-pitbulls-elgin

The peeple were clapping and cheering reely lowd!

Now I kin devote my attenshun to more importint thangs, like….

Chewing on bully sticks

and

Hey, gimme the ball!

and

Sleeping on the cowch wut dawgs are not allowed on

Defending the pit bull

Crowd protests Elgin’s proposed breed-specific regulations

ELGIN — There was a little barking downtown Saturday morning as more than 50 people, many of them with walking with their pets, marched to show their displeasure with proposed breed-specific regulations that would clamp down on pit bulls.

What prompted the peaceful protest was a 4-3 vote two weeks ago by the city council, which moved along changes to its regulations that include rules that apply only to pit bulls. A council vote is expected on the matter on Wednesday. Any changes would go into effect in June.

“Punish the deed, not the breed,” read a couple of the signs on display as the group took an orderly stroll starting and ending at City Hall.

“Breed-specific laws seem to punish the innocent and won’t do much of anything to control the problem of bad owners,” said longtime pit bull owner Will Alexander. Fellow Elgin resident Julia Long was concerned that the laws would apply to her “mutt,” based solely on its looks.

The city has not updated its animal-control ordinance in more than 20 years, and after two pit bull dogs mauled a smaller dog to death, started researching the matter. Pit bull owners not following the new rules could face fines of $1,000 or more. As of the last council session, those rules include pit bull owners buying three-year licenses for their dogs at a cost of $100, putting an identifying microchip in the dogs, and having at least $100,000 of homeowner’s or renter’s liability insurance coverage.

Pit bulls would have to be evaluated, spayed or neutered and would be required to undergo obedience classes and be held on nonretractable leads and muzzled when taken for a walk. Only people age 18 or older would be allowed to walk pit bulls.

The same rules would apply to any dog that a hearing officer or court deemed to be dangerous (pit bulls automatically would be classified as such) or vicious (a dog that attacks unprovoked). Vicious dogs would not be allowed to be taken for walks on Elgin streets. Owners of dangerous and/or vicious dogs would have to put signs up by their residences warning others about their pets.

In a memo sent to council members March 3, corporation counsel put forward modifications for the ordinance, including reducing the license fee to $50 and the size of required signage to 1 foot by 1 foot; allowing smaller fences provided a dog is muzzled or tethered and under adult supervision, and allowing pit bulls from outside Elgin to be in town with proof of registration and/or licensing elsewhere.

Some protestors Saturday questioned the legality of the city’s plan. Even with further changes, many said they feel restrictions are unfair and might amount to a de facto pit bull ownership ban, which would fly in the face of the state’s law forbidding breed-specific bans.

Other demonstrators were disappointed the city did not consult local animal-care experts when putting together the amendments.

“We called some local vets and shelters to determine how they handle pit bulls that weren’t licensed, but we did not solicit the input of vets or shelters before moving forward with the proposed ordinance,” Elgin Public Information Officer Susan Olafson said Tuesday.

What the city would have learned were that, while they agree with much of the amended ordinance, Anderson Animal Shelter and Elgin veterinarians Donald Bone and Edwin Minard, whose wife, Katherine, helped organize Saturday’s rally oppose breed-specific aspects.

That opinion is shared by the Humane Society of the United States, the Burr Ridge-based Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, and the Schaumburg-based American Veterinary Medical Association.

“I looked at their ordinance, and it looks like they are providing many great tools for animal control and the police,” said Jordan Matyas, Illinois State Director for the Humane Society. “The issue of (singling out) a breed is simply not going to help their community and will not solve the problem. I would hope that the city could focus on enforcing existing law and strengthening new laws without wasting time and money defending the what some might see as a ban of a breed that will do nothing to solve the issue that confronts them.”

Bone received a copy of a letter CVMA legislative chair and vet Shannon Greeley sent to Elgin city officials on March 2. The document states the organization “strongly supports enforcing leash laws, vaccination requirements and the implementation of such programs to teach responsible ownership. In addition, we advocate setting clear guidelines to manage dangerous dogs on an individual basis.”

Bone also objected to the “pit bull passport,” which would have required his clients who live outside of Elgin to have a document from the police department allowing them to bring their pets to town.

AVMA spokesman Michael San Filippo said the group “supports dangerous animal legislation by state, county, or municipal governments provided that legislation does not refer to specific breeds or classes of animals. This legislation should be directed at fostering safety and protection of the general public from animals classified as dangerous.”

The organization also has an online document, www.avma.org/public_health/dogbite/dogbite.pdf, which “addresses a number of reasons why we feel breed-specific legislation is an ineffective way to address the problem of dog bites,” San Filippo said.

Still, there is some academic support for efforts such as Elgin’s. Alan Beck, Professor and Director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, feels that, based on data and studies, there is a need for special rules for pit bulls.

Contacted last week, Beck mentioned the Web site dogsbite.org, which, on its homepage, states, “In the 3-year period from 2006 to 2008, pit bull-type dogs killed 52 Americans and accounted for 59 percent of all fatal attacks. Combined, pit bulls and Rottweilers accounted for 73 percent of these deaths.”

According to Beck, pit bulls are the most common breed to attack or kill other dogs. Beck also noted that “there are now some 230 cities, in 32 or so states, that have some form of BSL. All report a lessening of serious and fatal bites after the legislation took effect. All U.S. military bases now have BSL regulations. BSL is common outside the United States, in most cases starting before any U.S. law.”

Beck said the he is working on a project with Belinda Lewis, the animal control director in Fort Wayne, Ind., analyzing the data “as that city tracks the breeds of dogs that bite people and other dogs and grades their severity.” The numbers are showing pit bulls accounting for a majority of the bites to people and to other dogs in that town.

In a piece Beck wrote for Veterinary Forum magazine in 2007, he said, “I do not believe it is appropriate to take pit bull dogs away from their owners and believe such laws are unconscionable. However, I do find enough evidence to support restrictions, such as leashing and muzzling when in public and not adding to their numbers in society.”

The state ware I live does not allow BSL, but the city ware I live iz sumthang kalled Home Rule and the politishuns thank they kan do BSL if they want.  They kan all jump off a bridge if they want, but that wood be as stoopid as BSL.  Mummy acktually sed a lot of other thangs to the noospaper man, but he picked and choosed that one sentence becuz it fit gud in his artikle.

Please send sum gud wishes that sum kommon sense prevales here, becuz I reely do not want to ware a muzzle.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/NMPG32zODLYRzPxKSx3o

Mummy put the kookies on the kichen counter and went upstares fer jest a minute.  When she came back, the plate and foil were on the kichen floor and all of the kookies were gone!

Jest a plate and sum foil, no kookies

Naturally, Mummy blamed me fer steeling the kookies.  Oh, the outradge!  Oh, the injustiss!

In order to klear my gud name, I put my sniffer to werk and investigated the scene of the krime.

Wut's this?

There wuz crumbs.

No self respecting dawg wood steel kookies and leeve crumbs as evidunce, so I followed the trail of crumbs to the kabinet next to Mummy’s dish washing masheen.

Sumthang smells funny

Yoo will not beleeve wut wuz hiding inside Mummy’s kabinet….

Elf dawgs!

Sum elf dawgs wut look like me and sum of my online dawg frends!

Unfortchewnately, my Mummy could not see the elf dawgs, so I wuz still in big puppy dawg trubble becuz Mummy thinked that I eated all of the kookies.

The elf dawgs sed they wood put in a gud word with Santy Paws in kase Mummy getted me coal fer Chrismas this yeer

On the day called Thanksgiving, there wuz sum especially delishus treets at our howse, so I wuz an especially gud helper.

Okay, Mummy. Wut shud I do furst?

Furst, I helped Mummy with the big turkey.

It wuz a reely big turkey.

Now, I have herd that a raw diet is reely gud fer dawgs, so I offered to save Mummy sum werk and eat the big turkey raw.

Are yoo reely gonna cook that?

While the big turkey wuz hiding in the oven, I helped Mummy make sum snacks.

Are yoo using all of those crackers?

After a reely long time, the turkey wuz reedy to come owt of the oven.  I stood guard in kase he tried to escape.

Mr. Turkey did not dare make a move.

I waited pashuntly wile the peeple eeted their foodies.

Meybee not so pashuntly.

Then sumthang reel eggciting happened!  Mummy loaded up my bowl with peeple food!  She gived me sum turkey, stuffin, mashed potatoes, gravy, littel green balls wut look like kabbage and sum cranberries!

Then I waited fer permishun to eet.

I waited....

and waited....

and waited.

Then Mummy sed that majik word… okay!

I wuz reddy!

Nom! Nom! Nom!

Being a gud helper shore does pay off!

Yoo screem!

We all screem fer eye-fons?

Well, I mite hav menshuned too yoo wonce or twice that my Mummy is eskared of technologee.  So, wen my Daddy bringed Mummy a prezent wut was an eye-fon, Mummy’s wuz not too eggcited abowt it.  She sed  “um….er…..that’z reely nice”.  Wen Mummy thanked that my Daddy wuz not lookin,  she hided the noo eye-fon in her purse.  Nobuddy wood ever find it in there!

The fon wut my Daddy bringed home fer my Mummy iz pink and purple and gurly, but I guess that iz ok on akownt of the fakt that Mummy iz a gurl.

Mummy's noo eye-fon

Wen Mummy decided that the eye-fon wuz not so skary after all, she bringed it owt of her purse.  Then she putted wun of her faverite pitchers of me and Zeus on the wall papers.

Me and Zeusy dawg.

Now, I doez not understand why peeple wud want a fon fer their eyez.  Don’t yoo thank that wud hurt?  Wut Daddy shood hav bringed Mummy iz sum eye-screem.  At leest she wood hav letted me lick her bowl.

Yoo will give me sum eye-screem!

Yummm!