The Pasadena City Council has no idea what it’s done. They were not expecting anyone to care. Most on this Council thought that the minimal opposition that they received to their proposed mandatory spay and neuter law for all dogs (an idea that they tabled, and in part due to the backlash) would outweigh the backlash that they’d receive when targeting breeds or types. Wrong.
What’s clear is that those who voted to create a breed-discriminatory ordinance (6 of them) have literally nothing to say in defense of it. They are getting pelted by emails daily and the silence is deafening. The 2 people who have attempted to respond (Steve Madison, lead anti-Pit Bull demagogue; Bill Bogaard, Mayor lobbying to change state law) are doing so in the laziest and most disingenuous fashion possible…
Not only are they sending out a canned template email, an email that they themselves probably didn’t even write, but with this exercise in repetition they are most definitely trying to avoid and evade what is dually evident… That they want to criminalize and ban Pit Bulls but know that they currently cannot, and that they have given verbal and written testimony proving that they are actively lobbying state legislators for a dismantling of the current prohibiting of breed bans. See here, and here, and here.
They can deny this all that they want, in 100 different ways if they were so creative. It doesn’t change the facts nor does it shift reality. And people are pissed off, and rightfully so.
These bogus email responses are so incredibly disingenuous that they don’t really need a response, but I’m giving one anyways, mostly because I’m so personally offended…
Madison’s auto-response to constituents and California residents:
Thank you for contacting my office regarding the proposed mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for pit bull and pit bull cross-breed dogs. We understand and respect your views. The City Council is committed to ensuring public safety, while at the same time establishing preventive health measures for pets that can reduce overpopulation and improve their quality of life.
The proposed ordinance is consistent with California Senate Bill 861 which states that “uncontrolled and irresponsible breeding of animals contributes to pet overpopulation, inhumane treatment of animals, mass euthanasia at local shelters and escalating costs for animal care and control; (while) irresponsible breeding also contributes to the production of defective animals that present a public safety risk.”
Many other cities and counties—including Camarillo and Lancaster, plus Riverside and San Bernardino counties—have implemented the same type of breed-specific ordinance such as the one the City of Pasadena is considering. There is clearly a reasonable basis for this local legislation. Statistics suggest that pit bull breeds are responsible for over half of the fatal dog on human attacks in the United States. No doubt you have followed the cases just here in our region over the last couple of years in which toddlers and seniors have been viciously attacked, and some killed, by pit bull breeds.
Meanwhile, animal shelters—including the Pasadena Humane Society—are overcrowded with unwanted pit bull puppies and thousands are put to sleep in California every year. Our proposed ordinance will directly address these issues.
The proposed City of Pasadena ordinance, which is still under review, would help mitigate the effects of pit bull and pit bull cross-breed overpopulation and help ensure that these pets, their owners and the community remain safe and maintain a high quality of life.
I appreciate your comments and thank you for your community involvement.
Steve Madison, Councilmember for District 6
First off, Steve Madison doesn’t “respect” anyone’s views. The only view that he even remotely pays attention to is a view that directly agrees with his own.
Secondly, the city of Pasadena cannot be “committed to ensuring public safety” while at the same time ignoring the 3 reckless circumstances that are behind almost every dog-related human fatality ever recorded (loose dogs, chained/resident dogs, unsupervised children). They also cannot climb on top of the public safety mantle while at the same time ignoring the already existing leash law, anti-chaining law, and breed-neutral dangerous dog law.
Thirdly, when did this become about “overpopulation”? Wow. Because I have direct video evidence from meeting after meeting showing this clown Steve Madison ramble on about how all Pit Bulls are inherently vicious and have been “bred for thousands of years to be killers.”
Fourth, never have they taken up the issue of why there is “mass euthanasia at local shelters,” nor have they discussed “escalating costs for animal care and control.” Not once.
Fifth, define “reasonable basis”? The “statistics” that Madison repeatedly cites are from quite literally the most unreliable dog-related website on the entire internet, Pit Bull hate group DogsBite.org.
Sixth, how dare you cite shelter killing and claim that Pit Bulls are “unwanted,” AS YOU DEMONIZE THEM OPENLY AND IGNORANTLY, AND PERPETUATE SUCH BLATANT AND EGREGIOUS MISINFORMATION, which, by the way, directly leads to why many people do not consider them. How dare you!! You know absolutely nothing about “shelter killing,” nor do you know anything about the typical “sheltering” system, nor do you care how many Pit Bulls are currently being killed in such a system considering your ultimate desire is to see a ban enabled so that you can then have Pasadena customarily kill them all.
Seventh, your doublespeak about Pit Bulls and their owners “remaining safe” and “maintaining a high quality of life” is a massive steaming pile of you know what.
I’ve been on this planet for 32 years, and Steve Madison is one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever been in a room with. I sincerely hope that the other 6 members of this City Council, plus the Mayor, do not follow this crackpot into further profiling, scapegoating, witch-hunting, and all other nasty ideas that have been fundamentally repudiated by any decent human being that has ever walked the planet Earth.