By Gregory Phillips
From: FayObserver
Faced with a 100-strong crowd who condemned the demonizing of certain dog breeds, the Cumberland County Animal Control Board backed away Monday night from a move to limit adoptions of some breeds from the county shelter.
Instead, the board directed Dr. John Lauby, the animal control director, to look into ways the county can more carefully vet the people who adopt animals from the shelter to ensure they’ll be responsible owners.
“We’re not trying to kill anything,” Lauby said. “We’re trying to adopt animals.”
In October, the Animal Control board decided to recommend to county leaders that so-called bully breeds – pit bulls, Rottweilers, chow chows, American Staffordshire terriers, Presa Canarios and mixes of any of them – be rendered “unadoptable,” according to minutes from the meeting.
The board hoped to find homes for as many as possible through other shelters and rescue organizations as an alternative to euthanasia.
By Monday night, Lauby said he had received more than 18,000 emails on the topic, many from activists who erroneously were told the county was to start euthanizing all such breeds Monday.
More than 30 people packed the meeting room, with about 50 more in the lobby and still more outside.
Those who spoke included pit bull owners, rescuers, trainers and groomers. They told of being won over by so-called dangerous breeds, and how breed-specific policies don’t work.
“Some of the best dogs I groom are dogs that are on the list,” said Karin Miller, a Hope Mills groomer. “We can’t categorize the dogs any more than we can categorize people.”
Sally Keith of Fallen Angel Pet Rescue in Garner said that an American Veterinary Medical Association study from 2000 concluded that “there are no inherently dangerous breeds.”
A task force the association set up to study the issue further concluded that breed-specific policies were “inappropriate and ineffective,” Keith said.
Troy Duke, who runs a Cumberland County pit bull rescue, said the dogs are “suffering from the same stereotypes that racists label other people with.”
Several speakers called for mandatory spay and neuter laws and tighter regulation of unlicensed backyard breeders who sell puppies in parking lots.
“These people that are selling them, hit them in their wallet,” Kathy Hines said to cheers.
The county takes in more than a thousand unwanted pit bulls a year, Lauby said. Most are eventually euthanized.
Lauby said dog adoptions since he took over Animal Control have increased from 700 per year to about 2,000, but the county still euthanizes some 11,000 dogs per year.
After hearing from some 15 speakers, Chairman Cris Berry-Caban moved to amend the board’s recommendation from October to instead suggest that animal control start checking into the suitability of people seeking to adopt so-called “bully breeds” of dogs.
Lauby said he’s not sure exactly what form the checks would take, but that other counties have taken similar steps.
“That wheel’s already been invented,” he said. “We need to be in contact with them, see what they’ve done.”
Lauby’s proposals, once drafted, will go before a policy committee of county commissioners in early 2012, which among other things would discuss how to pay for any additional measures. Volunteers from rescue groups who spoke at the meeting said they would help.
“This is going to be a good thing,” Lauby said. “Now more people are aware of our problem.”
Read more: FayObserver
