Ohio House Bill 79 - Please support!

Ohio House Bill 79, introduced last week by Rep. Barbara Sears of Sylvania, would amend § 955.11 of the Ohio Revised Code to remove “pit bulls” from the definition of “vicious dog”. HELP FIDO is working hard on legislative efforts and strongly supports this bill for the following reasons:

1. BSL (breed specific legislation) is never a good idea, it only serves to punish responsible dog owners while doing nothing to crack down on irresponsible owners and in Ohio, has led to the slaughter of thousands of innocent dogs simply because of what they look like.
   
2. Ohio is the only State in the country that automatically defines pit bulls as vicious. Some States, such as Texas, have taken the opposite approach and have prohibited BSL completely.
   
3. No breed of dog, including pit bull, is inherently dangerous or vicious. Even dogs that have been bred and trained as fighting dogs, such as the Michael Vick dogs, are often able to be rehabilitated.
4. Current Ohio law places an undue hardship on responsible dog owners by requiring pit bull owners to purchase additional insurance. All pit bulls or dogs that "look" like a pit bull and the good owners and bad owners are all lumped together. There is not even a provision for dogs that pass the Canine Good Citizen test.
5. All definitions of dangerous or vicious dogs should be based on the behavior of the individual dog.
6. Some additional reasons and evidence are cites on Best Friends Network.

Please contact your legislator to voice your support of H.B. 79. Phone calls, faxes and letters work the best. Additionally, please contact the bill's sponsor, Rep. Sears, to thank her for sponsoring this bill and voicing your support. Lastly, the bill has been assigned to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and we urge people to contact them as well. Bless the Bully's blog has contact information for all the Representatives on that committee.