Vicious animals are more than a nuisance. They can maim and kill. But laws seeking to rein them in like the proposal to muzzle American pit bull terriers in Baltimore County and the one introduced Monday by Baltimore City Council member Agnes Welch, D-9 to control dangerous animals are misguided at best and won?t make any of us safer.
Besides, Baltimore residents deserve better from City Council members than feel-good proposals to crack down on dangerous animals and to ban baggy pants, another recent idea ? that can not be enforced.
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First, breed-specific laws make no sense. As Dr. Pierre Vigilance, the county?s health officer, said, “any dog can bite.”
Second, ?vicious? can mean different things to different people. Who is to stop feuding neighbors from trying to declare each other?s dogs vicious for less than rational reasons? Is barking too loud considered dangerous? What about pet snakes or birds?
And most importantly, who would enforce compliance with rules requiring stronger cages and muzzles for those animals who fit that category? Animal Enforcement officers can?t even make sure dog owners pick up poop in Patterson Park and keep dogs out of the children?s play zone there as rules require. We?ve seen a pit bull running freely there with a group of unattended children on more than one occasion.
Do officers plan to visit every home to certify animals as safe or dangerous and check cage strength?
What will make everyone safer is targeting those known to raise dogs for fighting. Those animals are primed to attack and are a big reason the Baltimore City Health Department investigates more than 1,000 dog bites each year.
And since arresting those involved with dogfightsoften leads to other arrests for illegal firearms, drugs and other criminal behavior ? as the case surrounding disgraced Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick shows ? it would make the city safer for a lot of reasons.
A better use of time would be for council members to debate ways to help the 9,000 ex-convicts returning to the city each year to find work and stop returning to crime ? and prison. Keeping one person out of prison saves taxpayers throughout the state about $25,000 per year, and more importantly, means at least one less wrecked life and safer streets for all. Or what about figuring out ways to pay for the $2.9 billion unfunded health care liability for city retirees? Those are much bigger quality of life issues than muzzling dogs and monitoring clothes.
