Here's how I think this all went down. This started out as an ordinance directed strictly at surprise, surprise, the ever lovable, "pit bull". A couple of dog attacks, some outlandish problems with dogs running wild, yadda, yadda and well, you know as well as I who gets blamed; the "pit bulls" and their owners. It was later determined that in at least one of the two attacks, the dog(s) involved were not "pit bulls", again, there's a shocker! But, you can probably put a paycheck on it that that little fact was buried someplace between the classifieds, the obits, and the land of OZ!

Anyway, my guess is, the people that are continually having to fight for their "bullies" came out and said, 'oh hell no', and I'm sure there were a few like me and you who know the right thing to do and stood with them and said, 'oh hell no', but look in the seat next to you, bet you didn't find any pet owners outside the dog world and here is how a city ends up with a mess like Louisville. Too many pet owners get whacked upside the head by "surprise legislation" because they don't have "target breeds" so they will readily sit back and say, 'not my dog so why do I care', or 'good, I think pits should be banned so my Fluffy Kitty doesn't have to feel threatened when he's pooping in the neighbor's flower box'. It's the attitude of, 'doesn't effect me and my house, so why do I care'.

Well, when you have just enough voices (especially a club that runs the LARGEST all-breed dog show in your own backyard), things get heard. 'So, dog owners don't want the pits banned, let's make things fair and make EVERY pet owner jump through the hoops. Let's partner with the good old HSUS and come up with some outlandish ideas, put them on paper and then we can all pat each other on the back when our AS Director is given an award as AR Activist of the Year! We'll put Louisville on the map with this kind of "progressive" legislation.'

Well, then they go through the ordinance and mark out the words "pit bull", make sure the biggest money-makers in town: the pet shops, puppy mills, and Churchill Downs aren't exposed, and lo and behold you've got yourself 100 pages of crap legislation ready for signing. All of the sudden, your other pet owners wake up, roll out of bed, rub the sleep from their eyes, and go 'WHAT, this was supposed to be about "pit bulls", not Fluffy Kitty!' So, they show up in mass at city hell, but hey, it's a bit late for that dontcha think?

In the meantime, this idiot Director and his cronies over at the HSUS have gotten the Mayor and a good chunk of the council convinced that this is a solution that is what's that word again, FAIR and will work. Who cares if we know whether or not we will have to hire more staff? Who cares if we have no idea how much money this will cost taxpayers to enforce? Who cares if this is not addressing the problem? We can sit back and say, well, 'we did something". Best part, let's go through this sucker when the Mayor is on vacation, he'll sign it cause he'll sign anything apparently. You think the Mayor has even read this thing? I'll bet people in Timbuktu who haven't read it word for word could tell you more about what is stipulated in that ordinance than the Mayor of Louisville. Read the newspaper reports, watch some of the coverage from local TV news, they keep talking about how people are outraged by licensing fees going up and that all animals will need to be licensed, HUH; that's the last thing anyone in Louisville is outraged about at this point. They are refusing to tell even those people who continue along with heads in the sand what is REALLY in this ordinance and who is going to have custody of their pets in 90 days! The pet owners of Louisville will no longer be pet owners, they will be caretakers of pets until the city finds the cause to come seize their property and destroy it if they so wish.

This happened in my own community. Certainly the ordinance that is still waiting for final passage here in no way touches Louisville, but we had people who sat back and said, 'damned pit bulls' and when the city figured out it's not just the pits and went for differential licensing and light MSN, they showed up to fight for their dog's balls. I'm not a lover of MSN either, but hey where were these people when we were fighting to save dog's lives? Oh yeah, at home watching the latest episode of "Survivor" and admiring the dog's privates with pride! (Ok, I know that's a bit much, but if you could hear some of these people and the way they talk about it, they sound like they have the things on a display shelf under lights, seriously). I don't disagree with their fight and I have to say I'm glad that something finally kicked them in the behind and made them wake up to the fact that this is not just about pit bulls and never will be again, this is about city and state government trying to control not bad pet owners, but good ones and their pets. This is about agendas that would readily prefer to see dogs in zoos versus in homes. It's about organizations like HSUS and PETA that have more power, money, and influence than anyone likes to admit. I know someone that is right hand to the Governor of Kansas. She readily admits that the lobbyists that can throw the most money at something, most often win. While she prefers to see people with passion on the capital steps, the bad thing is too many legislators and people in key positions are not like her, they prefer to see the guy that can buy them dinner.

It is impossible for any of us who have pets to sit back and think that what happened in Louisville is not going to effect us now or in the future. There will be other cities that will look at this even in an unproven form and say, 'hey, I don't want to miss out on being Prom Queen for a day'. Look at Valone in NYC; he's using Denver, KCK, and Miami as guidelines to try and overturn a BSL ban set down by the state of New York and all three of those cities are disasters that have done nothing but make their problems worse. But, because so many people are ignorant to the facts and refuse to even bother with trying to educate themselves, they buy it hook, line and sinker. Too many people are ready to vote for things and people that they know very little if anything about based on media hype, over-exaggerated animal control issues, emotions (my personal fav - "we MUST protect the children"), and the word of politicians.