OUT OF TOWN: Rich, who didn’t want his last name used, sleeps with his pit bulls in his pickup truck after leaving Denver when the city reinstated its ban on the breed. (Carmel Zucker / For The Times)

Paws & Laws

Don’t Take Your Dog To Town, Son.
Don’t Take Your Dog To Town.

Especially if that town is Denver, CO, which in May reinstated an on-again/off-again law banning pit bulls from city limits. Any pit bull caught within Denver proper will be held for a week and then executed. Should a dog be claimed, release is granted and the dog is summarily exiled to the hinterlands. If found within the city limits a second time, there is no reprise from Denver’s canine death squad.

Denver’s pit bull owners and others who are against the law say that it’s misdirected and that laws targeting dog behavior and owners of aggressive dogs would be more effective than outlawing breeds. In fact, according to an article in the August 2, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times, written by staff writer Nicholas Riccardi,, a 20-year study conducted by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that legislation aimed at behavior and not breeds was the “best way to ensure public safety.”

But, until the time that Denver’s ban is banned, an exodus of pit bulls, sometimes with their owners, is underway, leading to the development of pit bull refuge camps on the outskirts of town. That, or the hiding of dogs from public view for fear of having the family pet forcefully removed from their home for no crime other than genetics.

And, some say that humans are an evolved species. From where I sniff, some are, perhaps. But, they’re still members of the animal kingdom and they ought not treat their best friends unjustly. If there are problems with pit bull behavior, go after the people who encourage and make money off of that behavior…and don’t condemn a breed for the bad dogs among it.

Scoops, News Hound