So.. who wants to be in a paper?

[ESSlover]

Mods, not sure where to put this, so move it accordingly...

Anywho, I'm writing a paper for school (sorta like a debate, but not really...) about BSL's. My librarian is being a total *fill in word here* and completely agrees with them, and is trying to get me to change the subject of my paper. :roll: Yeah right, that isnt happening. So I have to find many many many manyyyyyyyyyyyy books/resources/animal activists.... and thats where you can come in! (Is this starting to sound like an advertisement? :lol: )

Anyways, if any of yall have written anything to the guy up in Ontario (his name is calling a blank right now) about the BSL up there, or if you have written anything else... I'd be incredibly happy to use some of your thoughts/qoutes in my paper, with citation/bibliography stuff.

I'm already using Jessa's siggy (the thing about the palm trees) as one of my facts. :D

Thanks again for anyone willing to help...

~Bethany

[Guest Mutts4Me]

[quote name='ESSlover']I'm already using Jessa's siggy (the thing about the palm trees) as one of my facts. :D

Just the Facts... "Pitting" the Risks into Perspective

1.) Since 1992, the breed most involved in fatal attacks has been the
Rottweiler, not the pit bull.

2.) Although there are no accurate or even near accurate census
records for dogs in the U.S., in some populations pit bulls are estimated
to comprise some 30-40% of the dog population, making it a very popular
breed. Considering that there were an estimated 53,000,000 dogs in the
U.S., and assuming that pit bulls make up 10% of that population,
there would be approximately 5.3 million pit bulls in our society. In
2000, 13 pit bulls were involved in 8 fatal attacks. That is roughly ONE dog
out of 204,000 - or .000385 percent of the pit bull population.

3.) Over the 37-year period from 1965-2001, pit bulls have been blamed
for an average of 2.48 human fatalities per year.

4.) About 40 people (children) per year die by drowning in 5-gallon
water pails. A person, during their lifetime, is 16 times more likely to
drown in a 5-gallon water pail than to be killed by a pit bull.

5.) Approximately 50 children in the US are killed every year by their
cribs - 25 times the number of children and adults killed by pit bulls.

6.) Approximately 150 people are killed every year by falling
coconuts. Therefore, you are more than 60 TIMES MORE LIKELY to
be killed by a PALM TREE than a pit bull.

7.) Each year, 350 people drown in their bathtubs. You are 151 times
more likely to be killed by your bathtub than you are by a pit bull.

8.) It is estimated that about 500 deaths per year are caused by
aspirin. You are more than 200 times more likely to die from taking
aspirin than from a pit bull attack.

9.) Every year, more than 2,000 children in the U.S. are killed by
their parents or guardians either through abuse or neglect. A child is
more than 800 times more likely to be killed by their adult caretaker
than by a pit bull.

10.) It is estimated that 5,000,000 dogs per year are killed in
shelters. Since in many places pit bulls make up 30-50% of the shelter
population, and are less likely to be considered for placement than any
other breed, guessing that 25% of those dogs killed is a reasonable
estimate. Therefore, it can be assumed that perhaps 1.25 million pit bulls are
killed per year.

Therefore - it is at least a HALF MILLION TIMES MORE LIKELY that a pit
bull will be killed by a HUMAN than the other way around.

11.) For every pit bull who kills, there are hundreds of thousands that DON'T.

----------
In the year 2000, pit bulls were involved in 8 fatalties.

From the National Safety Council:

Odds of Death Due to Injury, United States 2000

Deaths

Bitten or struck by dog (all breeds), 26
Bitten or struck by other mammals, 65
Bitten or stung by nonvenomous insect and other arthropods, 9
Bitten or crushed by other reptiles, 31
Drowning and submersion while in or falling into bath-tub, 341
Drowning and submersion while in or falling into swimming-pool, 567
Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, 327
Ignition or melting of nightwear, 9
Contact with hot tap-water, 55
Contact with venomous snakes and lizards, 12
Contact with venomous spiders, 5
Contact with hornets, wasps and bees, 54
Contact with other and unspecified venomous animal or plant, 9
Nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics, and antirheumatics, 176
Alcohol, 302
Legal intervention involving firearm discharge, 270
Legal execution, 80

Just to make sure you have the whole thing so you can cite where that number comes from.

It's especially important to not fall into propaganda in this kind of paper and to examine the situation from both sides. Since your teacher is pro-BSL, she's going to brush you off if you spew pro-pit propaganda at her. Make her think, and show her you've thought about it, too.

BSL is a knee-jerk reaction, and it does nothing to solve the problem. Michael Bryant has no interest in trying to really look at the problem and solve it; he just wants do do something, take action. He doesn't know anything about Pit Bulls and couldn't even pick one out in one of those "Find the Pit Bull" games. Yet he suggests AC and police officers have the ability to decide what is and isn't a Pit Bull and taking action (sometimes euthanasia) based on what they think a Pit Bull is.

I'd suggest other alternatives to Breed Specific Legislation, too... Like restrictions based on a dog's history and behavior, not its breed. And requiring some kind of basic intelligence before someone is able to keep a dog... etc.

Best of Luck.

[gooeydog]

Few things to think about, sorry they're so vague:

- Several national level veterinary and training groups are adamantly against BSL due to its innefectiveness and unfairness, and have made their thoughts publicly known... might be useful to look around for statements on that, even if you have to email them to get them (I can't for the life of me remember which they are, too many acronyms for me to keep straight!).

- Check out this book for stats: Fatal Dog Attacks By: Karen Delise . Has in depth info on fatal dog attacks over a wide range of time, there's probably a good bit of info there you can use.

- CDC themselves state on their DBRF page that no one breed can be held responsible for dog attacks, since many owner factors carry more weight.

- Michael Bryant, who proposed Ontario's BSL, couldn't even accurately identify the breed of dog he was so intent on keeping away from his citizens for their own safety... now, how are you supposed to protect people from something if you don't even know what it is yourself? There is a video clip of this somewhere online, but I don't have the link... there are some anti-BSL sites that may have it though, or if you post about it on an APBT board, I'm sure someone does.

- BSL is expensive to enforce (when they were going to pass BSL her ein Baltimore, they were looking at upwards of $75,000 per year just to enforce a pit bull ban), and ineffective (In PGCounty, they've seen an upsurge in large guard breeds, like Presas, Neos, as well as more traditional breeds like Rotties since the ban. It hasn't prevented several horrific maulings from taking place in the area, either... two tht immediately come to mind are a child attacked by an AmBull with puppies, and a baby nearly killed by a Dachshund (not entirely sure the second was actually in PGC). PGC has recently been considering repealing the BSL there, since it has been shown to be ineffective and costly. If you want to focus more on this, you might try contacting Adrianne Lefkowitz (sp?) with the ADOA ( http://www.adoa.org ), as she's in SOMD and has tons of firshand experience with the ban, and is one the commitee for trying to get it repealed.

That's about all I can think of right now, hope it helps a bit.

[ObedienceGrrl]

Why don't you use a "Find the Pit" type game to start off your paper?

Show all of the pics and then, at the end of the paper, post the answer.

[pyrless]

great idea, obediencegrrl!
you know what makes me the maddest? that your librarian was trying to get you to change your topic!!!!! First Amendment, meet Librarian. Librarian, meet First Amendment!

[ESSlover]

Thanks guys!!!!

DL- What addy did you send it to? I have like... alot :roll: :lol:

Mutts or Jess - What website or w/e did you get that from? I have to do that whole bibliography thing.. ugh... :roll:

Goo- Yay! I needed to find a good book to cite in my paper, and was having difficulty finding one in the library at school.. Off to the public one! :lol: And thanks for the link, I'll try getting in contact with her! Btw- Your in Baltimore? We should have a get toghether sometime, I live in Montgomery county :wink:

Thanks for you comments everyone else! This is gonna be one awesome paper! :drinking: :D