Hiding breed specific legislation
For anyone who follows this blog with any regularity, you know my stance on backyard breeders. These are people who buy purebred dogs and then breed them to make money. This is not done on a large scale, but simply as people who are trying to supplement their income a little because, "aren't the puppies so cute" and "we just love this breed of dog." This is one of the biggest fallacies going today.
Many of these animals are so overbred, they have health and emotional problems that will never be fixed and end up being a statistic for euthanasia numbers. I am not against registered breeders, who love the specific breed and show their dogs. If you buy an animal from a breeder who is reputable, you are going to pay a lot of money for the animal. If you buy from a backyard breeder, you are going to get what you pay for, which is normally a sub-standard bred dog, from someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing.
Florida has no law concerning these backyard breeders, so when a bill was introduced in the legislature for mandatory spay neuter, most of us in the animal welfare community cheered.
Then came the truth in the bill. Hiding in there was some wording for breed specific legislation. Specifically, making it allowable for municipalities to ban specific breeds in their area.
They tried last year to ban pit bulls from the state and the bill died because of the people of Florida. This was a bad bill.
Although I believe backyard breeding should be regulated, I don't believe dogs of any breed should be banned. As long as our legislators, who believe we, as a voting public are idiots, I will continue to write letters and more importantly, vote against legislators who try and do this.
Please write your legislator today. Don't let this bill pass. If our legislators are truly concerned about the overpopulation of animals in our state, they will come up with a comprehensive, fair bill which doesn't try to hide BSL behind a worthy cause.
Many of these animals are so overbred, they have health and emotional problems that will never be fixed and end up being a statistic for euthanasia numbers. I am not against registered breeders, who love the specific breed and show their dogs. If you buy an animal from a breeder who is reputable, you are going to pay a lot of money for the animal. If you buy from a backyard breeder, you are going to get what you pay for, which is normally a sub-standard bred dog, from someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing.
Florida has no law concerning these backyard breeders, so when a bill was introduced in the legislature for mandatory spay neuter, most of us in the animal welfare community cheered.
Then came the truth in the bill. Hiding in there was some wording for breed specific legislation. Specifically, making it allowable for municipalities to ban specific breeds in their area.
They tried last year to ban pit bulls from the state and the bill died because of the people of Florida. This was a bad bill.
Although I believe backyard breeding should be regulated, I don't believe dogs of any breed should be banned. As long as our legislators, who believe we, as a voting public are idiots, I will continue to write letters and more importantly, vote against legislators who try and do this.
Please write your legislator today. Don't let this bill pass. If our legislators are truly concerned about the overpopulation of animals in our state, they will come up with a comprehensive, fair bill which doesn't try to hide BSL behind a worthy cause.
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