Pit Bulls narrowly escape statewide dangerous dog label

DANGEROUS: My late 13-year old Pit Bull, Lucy

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• RIP: Four bad bills

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It was a heart-stopping afternoon for capitol-watchers, as an 11th-hour amendment almost slapped thousands of Texas dogs with a dangerous dog designation.

Today, SB 554, a dogfighting bill, passed the Senate with amendments. Animal advocates were watching this bill closely, knowing it would easily pass and therefore be a good candidate for wacky amendments. They were right.

As SB 554 was read on the House floor, Rep. Harold Dutton (sponsor of a dead silly bill forbidding minors from caring for "pit bulls") added an amendment that expanded the state definition of Dangerous Dog to include "... is a pit bull breed of dog."

The bill nearly reached it's final stage with the amendments, which normally would have sent it to the Governor's desk.  The House sponsor of SB 554, Rep. Stephen Frost (D-New Boston) was immediately alerted to the content of the amendment and informed that he had "just unleashed the dogs." 

Rep. Frost did not approve of the amendment. In an unusual move, the House reconsidered the vote, Dutton withdrew the pit bull amendment, and the unblemished dogfighting bill passed again to the third reading. (Update: SB 554 passed the House with no amendments on 5/20/2009)

Had this bill passed as amended, tens of thousands of dogs all over Texas would have been euthanized. Currently, a "dangerous" dog a) makes an unprovoked attack while at large, or b) while outside its enclosure commits acts that "cause a person to reasonably believe that the dog will attack and cause bodily injury to that person" (Texas Heath and Safety Code Sec. 822.041).  The owner must receive proper notification and a hearing.

This bill would have added c) ... is a pit bull, automatically declaring all "pit bulls" in Texas dangerous.  Owners of dangerous dogs must obtain liability insurance, but most insurers won't write policies for dangerous dogs. Most cities require dangerous dogs to have locked enclosures with a concrete bottom and a top and a special permit. The city of Fort Worth, for example, is considering raising its annual dangerous dog permit fee to $500.  A friend who specializes in animal law told me that most people who have a dog declared dangerous cannot comply with the regulations, and usually have the dog euthanized.

In my case, I would have gone from having zero dangerous dogs to having four. One dangerous toothless 12-year old pit bull with cancer. Two dangerous AKC Canine Good Citizens. One dog that is so dangerous she flops on her belly for little kids to pet her. One of my friends would have had her certified search and rescue dog declared dangerous. And dozens of my friends with champion show and weight pull dogs would now be the proud owners of dangerous dogs. 

Untold thousands of people with muscular, short-haired dogs would have been forced to prove that their mutts are not "pit bulls." No-kill shelters could no longer accept dogs that resemble pit bulls, as there would be no way for any shelter in Texas to adopt out a "dangerous dog."

With less than two weeks left in the Texas legislative session, there is no telling what might happen next.