Keep It Up Columbus!!

We here at HELP FIDO have spent the better part of the past 4 months being present at Whitehall City Council discussions about a proposed pit bull ban by Councilwoman Jacquelyn Thompson. In fact, this civil action of ours was what brought about HELP FIDO as an organized effort to increase the quality of life for dogs in central Ohio.

These long, arduous, stressful Tuesday nights were not only spent listening to myths, lies and unsupported “facts,” but also were often felt like a personal attack. Indeed, we have been called evil-doers and owners of “tools of terror.” This all happened before PETA’s announcement that pit bull owners are thugs.

*sigh*

After a few months, we decided, as we were beginning to organize and talk amongst ourselves that we would continue to attend the Whitehall meetings. However, since there had been comments made about our “outside” presence being unwelcome, as well as some rude accusations lodged against us, we also decided we would refrain from further comment until the status of the proposed ban was decided. Luckily other citizens of Whitehall chose to act and spoke numerous times at the meetings and to media. They didn’t need us to point out the problems with a ban…they had found their voice. On the night it failed we decided to speak out only after the vote though afterwards we retreated again behind our “above the fray” shield.

Since then, even though Thompson’s crazy ranting speech from the night of the failed ban made it into the Saturday Dispatch editorial section, we have not felt the need to speak out. The reason we have not been voraciously responding to this? We haven’t needed to. Many others came forward to point out the incredibly unsupported stance of BSL. Online letters to editors against BSL have far outweighed any support of Thompson (here) and (here) and (here). These are but a few of the letters that appeared. And then there is the glorious statement in Saturday’s Dispatch by Amanda Gleason, a woman who states she is not only not a part of the “pit bull lobby,” she doesn’t even own a pit bull! Furthermore, a rather, um, interesting article appeared in The Other Paper and featured one of our members rescue operations, and we will be addressing some concerns with that article.

Meanwhile we wanted to take a moment to applaud the efforts of these folks who have taken the extra time to write a letter, make a phone call, or send an email. We welcome their support and encourage them to continue to use their voice!!

Well done!!