Victims are often left with no recourse if a pit owner is a renter with no insurance. It has left families in financial ruin. And do we ever see the pit community stepping forward to do fund raisers for these victims? Never. They do the fund raisers for the pits who have committed these crimes instead.
For the first time, a state's highest court has ruled that a landlord can be held liable for damages caused by their tenant's pit bull, regardless of whether the pit bull had a known prior history of attacks or aggressive behaviors. With this landmark decision from the Maryland Court of Appeals, attorneys can now legitimately pursue similar lawsuits against landlords in other states urging their states to adopt the reasoning in the Maryland decision.
This will mean more pits in our shelters, more chances to have staff harmed, more chances for the public to be harmed visiting the shelters. But it will also mean, hopefully, a reduction in the attacks. Pits and pit types are responsible for 2/3rds of the DBRFs, dog bite related fatalities. Everyday beloved pets are mauled and killed by pit bulls. Whether owned by responsible or irresponsible people, pits are still dangerous and need to be highly regulated.
PREVENT THE DEED BY REGULATING THE BREED AND SAVE LIVES.
Please visit www.DogsBite.ORG and see all the damages being done to families by these mutant dogs. I say mutant because normal canine behavior has been bred out of pit bulls. Normal canine behavior doesn't work in a fighting ring. I personally like pits but I also don't trust any of them. It's a shame man has seen fit to mutate a dog in such a fashion but it has been done and now we have to deal with it. Thanks to Kory Nelson, the Denver attorney responsible for the highly successful ban on pits in Denver, for sending this. http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2012/53a11.pdf
Wonderful piece, thank you for writing it.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to send shock waves throughout the "No Kill" community. It will mean a lot fewer pits with access to homes, thus more pits in the shelters and more euthanization. Hey, this is what happens when you are in denial about the damages being done by pits. This is what happens when pits are pimped to anyone who is breathing, rather than to only the most experienced people. Let's see how many adoptions these "save them all" pit bull groups will be able to do now. I am part of a large pit bull regulation group and we are contacting apartment associations, etc., to get the word out. I hate that it has to come to this but the "No Kill"ers and pit apologists can only blame themselves.
ReplyDeletethe pit owner that we sadly have to have dealings with, since his beast attacked my child, is a renter and has no insurance. This ruling makes me realize there is hope. We were left with no recourse, perhaps, until now. And even if this doesn't apply to us, I hope every victims explores every possible avenue of their own recourse. Not more walking away with a slap on the wrist while our loved ones suffer.
ReplyDeletegrippingtruth.blogspot.com is where I speak to how a pitbull attack, and a truly irresponsible owner affect my family's life...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anne, for sharing your blog about your child's attack. I do hope that your family is recovering from this as best you can recover.
ReplyDeleteThis issue ALONE will fix the majority of the problem in my neighborhood. It seems pit bulls are the dog of choice for the rental community. Ding dong the Derry-O!
ReplyDeleteI think landlords should be held accountable. That will reduce the number of people who are turning their head and alowing these dogs in apartment complexes too.
ReplyDeleteTo the foul mouth who is threatening me - I'm the one laughing. "Your" dogs will be regulated, maybe even banned, and I am laughing at you. And your comment is being passed to the proper authorities, rest assured.
ReplyDeleteI was recently at the Devore Animal Shelter when a ridiculous looking women (she had obvious fake breast, dressed like she was trying to re-capture her youth, which was clearly decades behind her, and she had clearly spent hours (months or years) in a tanning booth because her skin looked like snake skin) ran up to us (my neighbor and I) as we were bringing into the shelter a Pit that had been dumped in our neighborhood. This woman had the nerve to 'inform' is this dog would simply be killed, no sooner then we would walk out. Well, we asked her if she wanted the dog and she said she already had a bunch of Pit Bulls in a boarding place and could not afford to take another dog. She kept trying to guilt us into keeping the dog we brought into the shelter.
ReplyDeleteWhen we asked for her name, he kept side stepping the questions, only more guilt for us doing the right thing.
By the way, we waited at the shelter to watch them put the dog we brought in a cage and have checked back on him. We found out someone did come to the shelter and claimed the dog we brought in, as it had been stolen from them.
And one more thing, while we were waiting in the lobby of the shelter to get some information on a cat my neighbor was interested in, we heard snake skin lady on her phone, just spouting off how terrible this place was and how terrible we were for doing the right thing.
Funny thing was, we all walked out together and watched snake lady get into her car and drive out in front of us. We really laughed when we say her license plate, "I (heart symbol) membr" and thought what kind of a normal rational person would put such a thing on their license plate. Only a person who was unbalanced, and in need of serious mental health help would. But then when as we were talking about the license plate and the drivers behavior, things just seemed to fall in place. We actually felt sorry for her and realized how much she must be lonely and hating of life.
We were glad to see the dog we brought in was found by its owner.
First Anon:19, thank you for picking that pit up off the streets. Then thank you for recognizing how nutz these activists are. Now this woman is obviously taking dogs out and abandoning them in a kennel. This has happened before. http://devoreshelterfriends.blogspot.com/2012/01/not-happy-ending-for-devore-dogs-thanks.html
ReplyDeleteWhat if she had agreed to take the dog? The owner might never have gotten it back. You did the right thing. That activist doesn't realize that all pets that come into the shelter are considered owned until the end of their holding period. And because of that, the shelter can't euthanize them upon intake unless they are on the verge of death. Devore does follow the law.
Anon, I also encourage you to contact your Supervisor and express your concerns about these types coming after Devore. I do hope you have read the other posts here providing the truth about the unfounded and unproven accusations.
ReplyDeleteshock waves through the no kill community. that has a nice ring to it.
ReplyDeleteHey, Karie, where do you think mules come from? Duh. And to put chihuahuas on the same level for mauling as pit bulls just shows how very little you know about the subject.
ReplyDelete