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Public Handout - Pit Bull Ban Contact info Tyler Sartain tcsartain123@gmail.com 0 In the 70's they blamed the Dobermans In the 80's they blamed German Shepherds In the 90's they blamed Rottweilers Now they blame the Pit Bull ..... ,,, Cesar Millan , ,..t. ,, ,..- , ,;: , ,i.p.,,,,,, , ., - .. moNet, 4,. : „:-.„, .'„ .. , , : , t .- . .-. -, -... .,..,: , .„. ‘ :.. „ , 0:,, -t : ,... . % ; ,,i,,,,,, - - ....,, RN." , 4 4i,,,,, m • k 4 .4111100. 101111 r 4 .1 x ,. .°. '' ' 1 li 44,i,e2", %474111\114stv\ It a 4111"1.144. ) - --**` t,,ik,.:.. ,04 , if. �: I VII 1(11.......a.„-- . , ,, , , , .-* ,-- :::, ,i 4 '1,••••',..:4: - 4 , When will the blaMe the humans . Good Afternoon my name is Tyler Sartain I live at 233 North Kansas Ave. in Salina. I want to bring to your attention some issues I found when I was researching the December 16th City Meeting back in 2019 on the Breed Specific Legislation. I went through the minutes that were on the BSL and I looked at the city report that was given to our City Commissioners. The sources they used in the report were not all backed by science but more of opinion. I went and looked up each source they used and found a few to be not backed by science or professionals on the matter. Here are some of the Sources that were handed. I'll read to you the sources and comments made on them by other readers. Dogbites.orga private ran website by Founder Colleen Lynn In the book Pit Bull:The Battle over an American Icon,author Bronwen Dickey writes that DogsBite.org accuses several organizations of being "co-opted by the 'pit bull lobby', a shady cabal that supporters of the site imply is financed by dogfighters."1-.1 In an interview with Psychology Today, Dickey says "The site's founder is also contemptuous of people in the relevant sciences, including those at the AVMA,the CDC,the Animal Behavior Society,etc. She refers to them as 'science whores,' which alone is enough to discredit her claims."1'31 In an article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, R. Scott Nolen states that "DogsBlte.org's claim that pit bull—type dogs were responsible for 65 percent of the deaths during that 12-year period(2005-2016) is disputed by some groups as inaccurate and misleading.The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, for example, says identifying a dog's breed accurately is difficult, even for professionals, and visual recognition is known to not always be reliable."121 The book Misunderstood Nanny Dogs?: A Critical and Objective Analysis of facts & myths concerning Pit Bulls By J.Thomas Beasley This book was provided to the city commissioners by the City Manager or the Parks and Rec manager. A quote from a reader who was a law officer who trained police dogs for 30 years says this about the book. "The author is a self-proclaimed "layman," not a dog expert, behaviorist,trainer or the like.The author himself has not been exposed to the breed except by the media itself, which, in this day and age,we should all know better than to give our full trust to mainstream media. Even if you are simply looking for a well put-together book,this is definitely not it.The author makes no attempt to research the claims that he makes and he draws much of his "information" from dogsbite.org, another source of perpetuated mis-quotes and fabricated statistics."The author has no degrees or experience in any animal studies. dogbitelaw.com attorney Kenneth m. Philips Attorney Kenneth M. Philips practices dog bite law in California and helps prosecute in cases of dog bites all over the country. He has made many propaganda videos claiming that no one should get a "pit bulls" and suggests a "recall on the breed" at the end of a video it says "do not adopt a pit bull." He advocates for dog bite victims and claims his practice only takes cases related to dog bites or death by dogs. His main target is "pit bulls"and their owners he wants the breed destroyed. Pretty biased if you ask me. So how can our city commissioners make a clear judgement when half of the resources given were not based off of accurate scientific facts rather opinions or data that's inaccurate?The Salina animal shelter even stated to the commission that they were spending more resources on these dogs and using personal vehicles to transport them out of state. Even this animal advisory board made the motion to have the city commissioners repeal the BSL. I believe that these stated resources given to the commissioners were wrong to be used. Countless reputable agencies have provided facts on why BSL doesn't work." It's time for a change thank you. My fellow Salinan's Against Breed Specific Legislation. How can we combat the BSL in our town? What are we doing that hurts our cause? Are we doing the best we can to raise awareness with facts? These questions come to mind when I go to the city meetings or talk to people about BSL. I know most of us are in support of repealing this ordinance but it does our cause no good if we aren't all in the same page. It also hurts the cause when we play more on emotions rather than facts or when people show up and speak and with good intention but end up delivering a message that doesn't align with the goal. That goal should be a full repeal of the BSL. The commissioners, city manager, and city employees watch how we present ourselves at meetings, online, and in public. We must do our best to show them that we mean business but are respectful about it. During the city meeting back in December when they voted to retain the BSL I saw and heard many people who were being disrespectful and the commissioners took note of that. The way we present ourselves shows the commissioners that we either take this matter seriously or not. We must do better. I'm not pointing fingers or blaming anyone just sharing observations that I saw as well as the observations made by others. Again, those that showed up to the meeting may have not known about our cause and spoke on their own behalf which in turn hurt the cause. Mayor Davis when reading the rules of speaking to the crowd said "I probably don't have to read the last sentence about being escorted out because I've never seen that happen here because everyone is respectful." To me that insinuated that because of how this issues has been represented by the commissioners already made up their minds about this issue before they even voted. The resources provided to the city commissioners by the city manager and parks and rec director were not all based on facts, but were rather biased on why "Pit Bulls" are bad. Not at all backed by scientific facts. Those in our community and on the Animal Advisory Board have provided factual evidence to the City Commission on why BSL doesn't work and why breed neutral laws work best. Some of the comments made by the commissioners at the December 16th meeting should tell us how well we're representing our Breed. Also, I feel as some of the comments made by the commissioners weren't helpful and were somewhat backhanded. We've presented facts and solutions on the breed and how to control the owners, but I fell it's fallen on deaf ears. My comments are not meant to be disrespectful in any way. I'm just trying to understand their thoughts. I'll read to you the comments made by the commissioners and my responses. The Comments are as followed Melissa Hodges: "if you are here to be advocates for those animals then show me how you demonstrate that you are good owners and that your good human beings." "You have managed to take someone very sympathetic to your cause and completely make me reconsider where I'm coming from because now I'm sucked into the emotion right with you I'm not thinking about this as dispassionately as I should so I just want to let you know that I don't think you represented your breed well at all this evening." Mike Hoppock: "it's not always about the number of bites of a pit bull or German Shepard but the severity of that bite." "I must air on the side of public safety." Karl Ryan: "Me, my family, my dog was a victim of a pit bull attack." "I don't think I could face a single constituent that's been attacked by a pit bull if we lifted this ban." Joe Hay: "No Comment." Trent Davis: "There was a lot of comments about its not the dog it's the owner I'm still waiting for suggestions on what to do about the owner." "if you look at our current animal ordinances lions the king of the jungle the lion is not allowed in our city just like venomous snakes and a few other animals you can own them in the county you can be a lion owner and live in the city but your lion can't live in the city so I'm sitting here I'm saying what line of reasoning would it take to remove the lion from our current restrictions in our animal code I'm waiting to hear a reliable method to control owner behavior." My argument referring to these comments by the commissioners would be as following. To Mrs. Hodges: Comment 1: How are we going to show you that we or anybody else in this town are good dog owners? Most Dog owners who follow the law shouldn't have to prove themselves if they're doing nothing wrong. Comment 2: Those who shared their personal stories are hurt, and not many of them can articulate all the facts that you may have wanted to hear. The information you were given by the Animal advisory board should be a good factual foundation to help stop the emotions. It's normal to have emotions they help guide us. To Mr. Hoppock: Comment 1:The bite severity can differ from dog to dog but nevertheless they all cause damage and depending on the will of the dog the damage could be greater than a "pit bull" many studies have tried to determine which dog has the strongest bite with PSI. That stands for Pound-force per Square Inch. The American Pit bull has 235 PSI the German Shepard has 238 PSI which places them at 19 and 17 on the list of the 23 dogs with the strongest bite. The top domesticated dog with the strongest bite PSI is the Kangal with a whopping 743 PSI. The Average tire PSI is 32 so should we ban all dogs with bite PSI over 32? Comment 2: When we talk about public safety we must focus on all forms of public safety. There are people who've been arrested and released multiple times for violent behavior and endangering others yet they don't get banned from the city they walk around free. We allow the sale of alcohol and what happens when its used in access or for long periods of time people die. People who text and drive also contribute to being a danger to the public. I personally was hit by a driver who claimed to be "distracted" my safety was compromised and I should've died. We've made laws that ban drivers from using their phones while driving but does that stop them? NO. Mr. Ryan: Comment 1: I'm sorry that you and your family went through a horrific event I hope the dog and owners were held accountable for those actions or lack thereof. I also hope you don't blame the actions of one dog on the entire breed. Comment 2: Would you be able to face a constituent knowing any breed of dog can harm or kill people? If a Labrador retriever hurt or killed someone in Salina would you want to ban that dog? Any animal domesticated has the potential to harm or kill. We live everyday not knowing if it will be our last and if we ban everything that has the potential to end life we would all be miserable. I Dr. Davis Comment 1: We've given many ideas on how to control the owner but it seems like they went unheard. Pet owners in general should do the absolute best to provide the care for their animals sadly not everyone does. We can limit access, implement harsher punishments and fines, require the owners to jump through many hoops to show everyone how serious they are about being responsible owners. Sadly, not everyone will do it and it ends up backfiring on those who do. Comment 2: When you talk about lions not being allowed in Salina my issue with that comment is that Lions aren't domesticated pets they're wild animals. If you were trying to compare a dog to a lion then the comparison is unjust. The only lions we have in Salina are currently locked up in a zoo so with the comparison you gave it seems to suggest you would rather have "pit bulls" locked up in a cage and out of the city. To me this commission has two concerns they want solved: 1. How do we control the people? 2. Public Safety These are good concerns but more regulations won't fix lawbreakers it harms good citizens. To help with public safety we need to educate how to effectively keep people safe from animals and other people and how to be better pet owners. There are numerous studies and classes on how to keep safe when animals attack as well as how to properly train your pet. The scariest public safety hazard to me is other humans, no matter what we enforce or how we enforce it there are those who could care less and end up breaking the law or hurting someone else.