These City Officials have more to worry about than Pitbulls Residents in Etowah to the number of sex offenders is 218 to 1 Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Etowah-Tennessee.html It's not just about the Ban. It's about elected officials who don't do what the MAJORITY of reputable agencies and citizens want. it's about their personal agenda.Say No to Etowah’s Officials Mayor Jim Bull said 2 Etowah residents could speak against the pitbull ban for 3 minutes each. He let 3 or 4 to speak for the ban, 2 or 3 were paid policeman speaking in a on duty obligation. He did not consider suggestions made by the ASPCA, and 51 other credible agencies including MTAS who created the ordinance. 15 people at the meeting For BSL and about 100 opposing BSL, most are Etowah residents. How did it pass? It is obvious he did not listen to the residents of Etowah. Again he ignored the info, suggestions and help from citizens. You have laws to deal with dogs. If you were doing your job, you would not have this problem! MTG comments: Quest-How much will this cost the city? Answ-We don’t know. Quest-Where do we bring our dogs? Answ- Humane Society. Quest-How? they won’t accept them, Etowah did not pay the $2k this year. No Answer. Non resident Commissioner John Bohannon tabled the Ban, his daughter represented the Ban. Hmmm

If I were a resident and thought this law affected me I would get my dog DNA tested. It is not expensive and if the test came back say boston terrier bulldog mix... then I would let the ACO know... very few dogs that people call a pit bull are pure breed dogs... remember only three breeds of dogs are a pit bull. Mike Vicks dogs which everyone though were pit bulls when DNA testing was done...most were some type of Boston Terrier mix. Indentifying and clarifying what a pit bull is makes it very difficult to enforce such laws.

Wow Davas... You compare a 60lb dog to a 6lb dog? Are you ridiculous? I am a Tn pit advocate and I have three wonderful dogs. They have never bit anyone. When we passed the laws for drinking and driving, we didn't take the cars away or ban alcohol, we held those accountable that misuse them. Why, then do we plan to murder innocent dogs because of our own misuse? Dog bites should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. STATE leash laws should be upheld. Those with aggressive dogs should be held accountable and not allowed to own any more dogs. If we don't uphold the laws in place, it is our fault that people own vicious dogs. The same as if we don't punish drunk drivers, they continue to drive and kill our loved ones. Use common sense. Look at your local and state laws. Ask yourself if they are being upheld. TN has some of the most lax animal laws in the USA. Furthermore, local municipalities do not uphold the laws we do have. As an animal rescuer, I had to call a lawyer to show the local police the animal abuse laws because THEY ADMITTED TO NOT KNOWING THEM. So, if you want to fix dog bites, change the laws and uphold those already in place. ANY large dog can attack and kill. ANY small dog can attack. Do we just ban them each time a different breed attacks? Or do we hold those people that shouldn't own them responsible?

Unfortunately in today's society there are more people who would rather hold onto fear that is based on an 'idea' that is a result of misinformation, twisted statistics (that even the U.S. Center of Disease Control refuses to keep since 1998 because they understand their statistics are based on completely unreliable sources) and fear mongering by the news media for the sake of boosting ratings than to get reliable, verifiable and provable FACTS to base their decisions on. This is yet another example of how propaganda and misinformation is more powerful than physical evidence, a long history of good behavior and hundreds of thousands of people who know the truth is. What a sad commentary for the human race. Fear and killing whatever we fear is viewed today as much better than learning about what we fear and geting to the truth of the issue. So sad. So sad indeed and so completely unnessecary if we would only decide as a society to hold humans responsible for what their dogs do.

THIS SATURDAY The First National Public event for victims of Pitbulls & other dangerous dogs. Victims are coming to the FREE EVENT from across the USA and Canada. Police on-site security, two lives bands, a food vendor along with several national speakers on the issue of dangerous dogs, including Tony Solesky and Colleen Lynn of Dogsbite.org. 12 Noon in Lincoln Park,4325 South Pantano Rd, Tuscon, Az 85730 on October 27th, 2012. Churches, and business groups are welcome to come out to help raise awareness and show support. We kick off the event with a short walk at Noon and we will carry posters of victims that cannot attend due to the severity of their injuries, or due to the fact that they were killed by a pitbull. DOGS ARE PROHIBITED AT THE EVENT. a playground is onsite. The Free event will run until 7 p.m. http://walkforvictimsofpitbulls.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Walkforvictimsofpbodd?ref=ts

Thankfully the city council and mayor learned that people from New Zealand, Mexico and every corner of the earth should not make LOCAL laws. So waht if they make a lot of noise. Look at Miami Dade.. They brought in reality t.v. stars and sport stars and flooded the politicans with phone calls, emails, and threats and the locals STOMPED the pitbull advocates by over a two to one margin.The noise of pitbull advocates comes from a wide net of NON LOCAL VOTERS. Listening to them and letting them make local laws makes as much sense as having IRAN vote in your local laws. GREAT JOB CITY COUNCIL. This is great for tourism.

Of all hospitalizations requiring more than 8 days due to dog attack, 100% are attributed to pitbull attack, Annals of Surgery, 2011. To compare the flesh tearing, bone breaking, degloving, bloody, gruesome, deadly attack of a pitbull to the occasionally skin breaking bite from a dachshund/chihuahua/etc is in essence the same as comparing the bite of a teething baby to that of a bath salt crazed face eater. Absolutely anyone who defends pitbulls in light of the life-changing attacks they inflict to someone on a daily basis has never been affected by their lethal maulings and has no say in this argument. When drunk driving laws were first introduced, the same heartless arguments were raised by people who didn't want their rights changed, but the numbers didn't lie and, today, the numbers behind pitbull maulings resulting in disfiguring injuries and deaths are screaming from the roof-tops that something has to be done to protect the innocent. The pitbulls themselves are speaking volumes as to their nature. If bad owners were the problem, all dogs would be banned because every breed has bad owners. Punish the deed???? Children with half their faces torn off? Children with hands torn off? Children killed and dragged into the woods? Elderly nearly decapitated walking to the mailbox? Because of a dog???? Punish the deed? How much more responsible to just keep the breed most often associated with these senseless attacks contained in a safe manner to protect others from attack. Then, if another breed suddenly starts attacking and mauling in the same gruesome numbers, then we'll work on laws to regulate them too...but pitbulls won't be a problem thanks to the brave city leaders of Etowah.

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The classic tactic of pit bull advocacy is "believe what I tell you, not what you see with your own eyes." Eltowah city council should be congratulated for placing a higher value on the safety of their residents than on the shrill complaints of breed specific advocacy.

@johnp, could you please explain how data from any hospital shows which dog bites more? HOSPITAL reports rely solely on the information provided to the Doctors by victims; witnesses; officers. Dogs are not typically hauled into the ER's for verifying the statements, and no bite is identifiable by breed or type of dog. Perhaps an MD would be qualified to guess the size of a dog, but not it's color, the length of it's coat, the size of it's head or anything else that would be considered a breed identifier. Copy and paste all you want, there are far more studies out here that disproves this rubbish. But bottom line, doesn't matter what studies are shared where, BSL JUST DOESN'T WORK. And, it's THAT simple. It fails communities repeatedly, which is why so many areas are now repealing or defeating attempts as passage at the onset. Unfortunately in Etowah, folks are just a little backward -- and not in the shy and quiet way -- but the backwoods kind of way. And even more unfortunate? They happen to be sitting in seats that the good people of Etowah voted them into (bet that doesn't happen again). Hang in there Etowah neighbors, next election new officials, REAL measures enacted that can be enforced and will work to keep us ALL safe.