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Breed-specific legislation is big news in several states
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Florida Senate Bill 1276, which seeks to allow local governments to regulate specific dog breeds, passed by a 9-2 vote in the Community Affairs committee on March 4th. NFL player Ernie Sims was among the dozen people who testified against the bill. Florida, like Texas and Oklahoma, allows local governments to pass dangerous dog laws that are more stringent than the state law, if the local regulations are not breed-specific. In Florida, cities such as Miami-Dade that already had breed-specific laws were allowed to keep them.
Florida SB 1276 was amended to prohibit local governments from imposing outright breed bans. However, local governments would still impose breed-specific requirements such as insurance, fencing, and muzzling even for dogs that have never shown dangerous tendencies or run at large.
The Florida bill is now in the Senate Agriculture Committee where it has not been scheduled for a hearing. The companion bill in the House has not been scheduled for a hearing. Florida's legislative session ends on April 30, 2010.
Meanwhile, a Maryland dog owners group has asked the sponsor of a dangerous dog bill (HB1314) to add language that would prohibit breed-specific legislation in Maryland. Advocates believe that the bill sponsor is supportive of the amendment.
Things continue to heat up in the city of Denver, home of America's most infamous pit bull ban. In one federal lawsuit (Arnold v. Denver), the city has settled with a woman whose dog was accused of being a pit bull and killed by the city. In addition to paying the owner what is being called "a multi-thousand dollar settlement," the city must institute changes to their procedures.
A member of the Denver group Breed Awareness Not Discrimination (BAND) filed an open records request concerning a second federal case (Dias vs. Denver). The request revealed that the city has hired an outside law firm a cost of over $15,000 during the months of December and January alone. The Dias case argues: "The pit bull ban violates the Fourteenth Amendment because it: (1) is unconstitutionally vague on its face; and (2) deprives [the plaintiffs] of substantive due process."
Finally, in recent weeks, the cities of Elgin, IL and Jackson MS have voted down breed-specific legislation.
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