New law regulates breed discrimination of dogs

A new law entitled “Further Regulating Animal Control” that takes effect on October 31, 2012, was signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently.  This new law involves animal protection and includes a provision that states, “No city or town shall regulate dogs in a manner that is specific to breed.”   Basically, this provision translates to no city or town in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts being allowed to discriminate against a specific dog breed.

Of course, the first breed that comes to mind after reading this provision is “pit bull.”

Pit bulls have been discriminated against for so long and so hard by so many.  It’s about time the ignorance was stopped.  How great is it that our state was the first to lead the way!

As an animal control officer, I deal with pits every day.  In fact, historically, most of the dogs that are at our shelter are pits.  They are not the vicious, blood thirsty, jaw-locking monsters that people think they are.  They do not “turn” on people.  They are dogs like any other breed of dog.  Their reason for being is to be loved and cared for by a human.

They have no hidden agendas.  Neither Jose nor I have ever been bitten by a pit or bully breed.

I will admit that we’ve both received some pretty good lickings though!

Any well-raised dog is a stable dog.  Any dog not properly brought up can be unstable and a danger.   Any pit bull, any Chihuahua….any breed of dog.

The enactment of this new law obviously means that landlords, who accept dogs, cannot ban a specific breed of dog from being owned by a tenant.

The law also discourages insurance companies from compiling lists of “dangerous dogs” and charging higher premiums or canceling policies for the sole fact that the policyholder or applicant owns such an alleged dog.

I hope that the new law encourages those who have misconceptions about any bully breed to educate themselves.

My biggest hope is that the new law encourages and allows more people to own pits or other bully breeds, thus greatly reducing the number of bully breeds in shelters.

With that being said, Bruno, a handsome brindle pit, who has been at our shelter for almost three years and is a Parvo survivor, was recently transferred to Pittie Love Rescue and is now enjoying life in a foster home while he awaits adoption.   Our dark brindle pit mix, Lindsey, was also accepted by Pittie Love Rescue and is also in a foster home.

Last month, we had 18 dogs at our shelter.  However, due to recent adoptions and transfers to Pittie Love rescue, we currently only have six dogs, most of which are pits or pit mixes.

While dog adoptions have been successful recently, our cat adoptions have been slow.

As of this writing, we currently have 30 cats/kittens.  Unfortunately, there are about 30 or more reportedly domestic stray/abandoned cats wandering the streets of Webster who need homes.  A listing of the places where these cats are located can be found on our Webster Animal Control Group on Facebook.  If anyone has other locations to add, please contact me at 508-340-5189 or advise on Facebook. We are doing all we can to control and reduce the number of feral/stray/abandoned cats out there.   Feral Spay Sunday Clinics at Tuft’s resume in September.

Thank you to Community Cat Connection, Baypath Humane Society, PT Pet Supply, The Fels and everyone else in the community for the continued support and generosity to our animals.  Bless you all.

Till next time, respect and appreciate each other and all the wonderful critters in our wonderful world.