So last Monday, November 25th to be exact, the Pasadena City Council voted 6-1 to have their staff draft a “breed-specific” mandatory spay and neuter law against Pit Bulls. Only Councilwoman Jacque Robinson voted against the measure. Casting aside the fact that the name of this type of legislation is a total misnomer, as there’s hardly ever anything specific about any of it, it was still readily approved for creation and will now likely be defended by many people calling themselves “dog advocates.” Another misnomer apparently.

More disgusting than that, many “Pit Bull advocates” will publicly defend this idea (and the coming legislation) on its spaying and neutering components alone, while ignoring the fact that its established end is to legally phase out these types of dogs from communities while endlessly vilifying them in the process of attempting to do so. Worse, Councilman Steve Madison, who brought this newest idea to the Council, has publicly lobbied for a Pit Bull ban for at least 2 years.

Councilman Steve Madison, from 10/1/2012:

Time after time, a Pit Bull chews a kid to death somewhere, and I’m not going to let that happen in Pasadena. I would have no problem saying Pasadena’s a special place: If you want to live here, come, but don’t bring your Pit Bull.

Councilman Steve Madison, from 7/8/2013:

We read about it over and over and over how these Pit Bull breeds kill either small children or elderly people. It happened earlier this year in Antelope Valley, and it’s always happening, and I don’t want that to happen in Pasadena. I don’t think this ordinance is as effective as what I had hoped, which was a ban, but I think we have to do what we can.

Councilman Steve Madison, from 10/8/2013:

This is going to happen in Pasadena if we don’t do something about it. At least fifty percent of the fatal dog attacks on humans are caused by Pit Bull breeds. There’s no sound policy reason why a community like Pasadena shouldn’t be allowed to ban such dangerous animals. We should also keep pursuing in Sacramento a wake up call to state legislature so that local communities can decide whether or not they want to have these Pit Bulls that cause such a disproportionate share of fatal and severe injuries on humans.

Councilman Steve Madison, from 10/9/2013:

It’s only a matter of time until we have another attack in Pasadena. But, inexplicably, state law prohibits municipalities from adopting breed-specific legislation. So the spay and neuter ordinance is a tepid response to an urgent problem. At present, it’s all we can do, supposedly. We should change this state law and then immediately ban Pit Bulls from Pasadena before we have another attack that might cause death or severe injury to a kid or a senior.

I know these things because I am involved. I try to provide everyone with the proof, going so far as to provide video proof (in the cases of both Riverside County and City), and no one even watches it. I’ll now be criticized for daring to criticize anyone supporting this type of a law, and instead of hearing what I’m actually saying they’ll simply turn me off because I am putting their position under a spotlight.

This vote comes on the heels of 2 separate op-eds from the Pasadena Weekly, both of which I responded to but was not published, that flagrantly demonized millions of dogs while ignoring the consistent roots of each cited incident that they used as their evidence for demonization.

They treat us as if we are dumb, and many of you let them.

My written response was put out on my website on November 17th. I called the Pasadena Weekly the next day and asked how to go about getting it published on their website. They gave me the editor’s email. I emailed him and got no response. I also emailed the specific authors of the 2 hit-pieces, 1 being a secondary editor of the website, and got no response. I left my response in their comment sections. On November 26th, having no clue that the Council had already voted the day before, I sent my writeup to all 7 of the Council members. A field representative of Margaret McAustin was the only person to reply back to me, simply saying that she’d “pass it along.” My point in detailing all of these steps is to simply point out that no one even bothered to tell me that they were voting on 11/25.

In the end was my missing the meeting where they voted on whether to draft this law my own fault? I guess so. But it certainly wasn’t for lack of caring or trying to engage the participants. So if I, who runs this website and cares deeply about these issues, can’t even get a clear idea of when an actual vote was going to be taking place, how were the citizens of Pasadena made aware? They weren’t, of course, and now they have to work from the backwards position of already having the majority of the Council on board with wanting to draft more draconian legislation into existence.

This comes, even as the city of Pasadena already has a breed-neutral dangerous dog law on its books. I pointed this out to the City Council last year while giving a public comment during the meeting where this was originally being discussed. This also comes, even as the City Council claimed on October 7th that they were going to “hold off another six months before considering the issue again.” The “issue” being the mandatory spaying and neutering of ALL dogs. Yet they lied, and then hit their city with this vote 6 weeks later, and while also changing the rhetoric from “all dogs” to “Pit Bulls.” Nice. And you wonder why I missed the vote? Well, it’s because they said they were (again) putting it off! Guess not!

So here we are… I will be attending the next City Council meeting with the sole intention of giving a public comment about this issue. I hope you will join me. The next meeting, as far as I can tell, will be on December 9th. Coincidentally there was a meeting previously scheduled for today but according to their website it has been cancelled. In the mean time you can email the Council members at the addresses below. Keep in mind that Councilwoman Jacque Robinson was the only one to oppose this discriminatory legislation.

Pasadena City Council
100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109 at 6:30pm (they meet privately for an hour beforehand) in City Hall Council Chamber S249.
They potentially meet every Monday.
Next meeting: 12/9/2013.

Pasadena Public Safety Committee
100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109 at 4:15pm in City Hall Council Chamber S249.
They meet the 3rd Monday of every month.
Next meeting: 12/16/2013.

Pasadena Legislative Policy Committee
100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109 at 5:30pm in Fair Oaks Conference Room S039.
They meet the 4th Wednesday of every month.

I’ll close by asking the people that “have no problem” with this type of nonsense to please come out to the next meeting (where it’s actually on the agenda, could be a few months) and physically sit there and listen to them generically talk about all Pit Bulls in a general sense. See what you think then. Can you please do that? Listening to Councilman Steve Madison speak on this issue is literally like watching Colleen Lynn from a political bench. And some of you folks support it, which inevitably supports him and his ideas!? You need to wake up. I don’t mean to insult you, but you insult me by supporting legislation that unjustly vilifies my dogs. It’s ludicrous.

To contact the Pasadena City Council:

Mayor Bill Bogaard
bbogaard@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4311
Jacque Robinson, District 1
district1@cityofpasadena.net, jacquerobinson@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4444
Margaret McAustin, District 2
mmcaustin@cityofpasadena.net, mlmorales@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4742
John Kennedy, District 3
johnjkennedy@cityofpasadena.net, christiancruz@cityofpasadena.net, jwest@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4738
Gene Masuda, District 4
gmasuda@cityofpasadena.net, nsullivan@cityofpasadena.net
Victor Gordo, District 5
vgordo@cityofpasadena.net, vdelacuba@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4741, 626-831-8609
Steve Madison, District 6
smadison@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4739
Terry Tornek, District 7
ttornek@cityofpasadena.net
626-441-4802

Further contacts with the city:

City Manager Michael Beck
mbeck@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4333
Assistant City Manager Julie Gutierrez
jgutierrez@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4333
Assistant City Manager Steve Mermell
smermell@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4333
City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris
mbagneris@cityofpasadena.net
626-744-4141
Director of Public Works Siobhan Foster
sfoster@cityofpasadena.net
Director of Public Health Eric Walsh
ewalsh@cityofpasadena.net