Below is an excerpt from my 2018 book, Pit Bull Heroes: 49 Underdogs With Resilience & Heart
Pages 192 - 195
The amount of work required to end discrimination against dogs where you live will vary. It isn’t easy and takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work. You get what you put in when it comes to improving laws and making change on a governmental level. Here are some tips based on my experience helping to end breed-discriminatory laws in my hometown of Lakewood, Ohio, in 2018. Some of these tips may not apply to you depending on the amount of resistance you are getting from city leaders. Some tips may prove to be invaluable.
WRITE TO OR MEET WITH YOUR LEADERS
Find out what their stance is on the current legisla-tion affecting dogs that look a certain way. If they support breed discrimination, find out why and use that information to your advantage. Maybe they rely on false information, or they had a bad experience with a dog in the past. It’s an oppor-tunity to provide them with factual resources, debunk myths, and find out about the experi-ence that shapes their opinion. In some cases, I’ve found that leaders were unaware that their city had any form of breed discrimination and were quick to remove it from the law.
RALLY A LARGE NUMBER OF RESIDENTS BEHIND THE CAUSE
This is the most important in my opinion. The more residents involved, the better. It says a lot when 99 percent of the residents packing city council meetings are there to end breed discrimination and 1 percent is there to support keeping it. Often, zero pro-discrimination residents attended our meetings in Lakewood. In the words of Lakewood Councilman Dan O’Malley after the vote to end discrimination in Lakewood on April 2, 2018, “You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up.”
ATTEND COUNCIL MEETINGS ON A MONTHLY BASIS
Be seen and be heard. The more you go, the more you get noticed. If you go consistently and don’t give up, city leaders will know that this isn’t a short-term push to end the discriminatory legislation. The city will be forced to address the issue and make their stance public. Our goal in Lakewood was to make this a part of every city council meeting. By doing this, we forced it on the official agenda and eventually got them to have a vote on the issue.
FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY AND STRENGTHENING LAWS
Safety is the number one priority. Your push to end discrimination isn’t just about dogs with blocky heads. It’s about breed discrimination not working to make cities safer. It’s about this form of legislation creating a false sense of safety, and not focusing on real objec-tive laws that are proven to equate to safety. While your goal is for all dogs to be recognized equally, the leaders that you’re speaking to have safety on their mind. You can show them all the photos you want of children with pit bull–type dogs, but it won’t make a difference.
Breed-discriminatory legislation is highly subjective and relies on someone’s opinion when identifying a dog. We all see things differently. Subjective laws have no business being part of any government. Effective, objective, and robust breed-neutral laws do. Objective laws are easily enforceable and don’t impact certain types of dogs based on looks. They affect all dogs and hold all owners accountable when enforced. When the ban ended in Lakewood, the city implemented much more effective and stronger laws. Our city no longer has breed discrimination and we’re safer.
REQUEST PUBLIC RECORDS
This is one of my favorites, and we found it to be invaluable in our fight to end breed discrimination in Lakewood, Ohio. There is a lot of helpful information that can be found via public records requests. Start broad by asking for all emails between city officials over the past few years with the word “pit bull” or “dog ban” in them. Do you know about a dog that was kicked out of the city for being or looking like a pit bull? Find all the correspondences related to the case. Often you will find damaging information that will help your case to end the discriminatory legislation.
Request dog bite reports and statistics. The records often show that all types of dogs are causing inju-ries to residents. If your city doesn’t keep track, then how do they know the discriminatory legislation is working? In most cities, correspondence between city employees and police or animal control records is public to residents.
BRING IN THE EXPERTS
Share studies and prominent organization’s stances on breed discrimination. Did you know that there are no reputable organizations that support breed discrim-ination? In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Bar Association, American Kennel Club, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), American Veterinary Medical Association, Humane Society of the United States, and many more do not support breed-discriminatory laws.
Invite professionals and experts that work with all different types of dogs to attend city meetings. Reach out to other cities that repealed breed-discrimination laws and invite their leaders to speak about their posi-tive experience with repealing the laws.
For cities with breed discrimination, it is highly likely that their animal control officers were trained by the National Animal Care and Control Association (NACA). Did you know that the NACA is against breed discrimination and even addresses the difficulties of dog identification in their training? Use this info to your advantage.
Bring breed identification studies to meetings or send them to your city leaders. Pit bull–type dogs come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They’re difficult to identify and there are many studies that show this. Dogs are often misidentified by experts, so imagine how often they’re being misidentified by police, resi-dents, and animal control officers.
UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA
Spread the word about your fight to end breed discrim-ination where you live by creating a group page. Create Facebook events for each council meeting you are going to to maximize the attendance. The more people that show up, the better. Large crowds in support of repealing the legislation make a statement and grab the attention of the leaders and local media. Share stories online. In Lakewood, we made slideshow videos to share specific instances of the discriminatory laws not working. For instance, Lakewood approved a dog based on looks that DNA tested at 87 percent American Staffordshire terrier (pit bull). They approved the very dog they deemed dangerous to live in the city. Time and time again, we found cases of misidentification by our animal control department.
We also shared the story of a woman that was visiting Lakewood with her pit bull–type dog. She was on a dog-friendly patio, patronizing a restaurant with her well-behaved dog. Animal control arrived after being alerted by a meter reader and kicked the well-behaved dog out of the city based on its looks. This is not the message you want to send to visitors spending money in your city. Get these stories out. They put pressure on the city to make a change.
VOTE
Our successful push to end breed discrimination in Lakewood started one year prior to city council elec-tions. Three out of seven of our city council members were up for re-election that year. Once we knew who supported the pit bull ban repeal (and who didn’t), we went to work campaigning for the anti-discrimination candidates. Two of the three incumbents who supported the pit bull ban were voted out, and we helped vote in two anti-discrimination candidates. This was the first time in more than twenty-five years that an incumbent at-large council member running for re-election was voted out in Lakewood. And we got two out! We needed five of seven council members to vote in favor of repealing the discriminatory legis-lation, and the election brought us that majority. The vote to repeal ended up being 7-0 because the others on council saw how those who supported the ban were not reelected.
CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY
Give yourself the right title when you communicate with your city, other residents, and the media. “Pit Bull Advocate” sounds great, but “Safety, Education, and Anti-Discrimination Advocate” sounds more profes-sional. Plus, you’re utilizing the very important word “safety” in your title.
When speaking at meetings or emailing your leaders, it’s very easy to get emotional. Many of us are guilty of this, including me. Speak with facts, science, and stories. Avoid getting angry; be professional.
ALERT THE MEDIA
Let as many people as possible know about your cause. Local media is usually very happy to share stories like this. News stations know that breed discrimination can be a divisive topic, so they are happy to share these stories on the news and social media in order to get viewers to tune in or visit their websites.
What mayor or council member wants to be seen by thousands as someone who supports discrimina-tion? What mayor wants to see their city on the news in a negative light? Not many. Getting the media involved is a great way to get breed discrimination on the agenda and possibly force a vote.
BE BETTER
Many pro–breed discrimination advocates only have one method of operation: instilling fear in others while sitting behind a computer.
Get out, show up consistently, be professional, focus on safety, educate others, attack the effectiveness of the laws, vote, and most importantly, never give up.
When it comes to rescue animal and pit bull advo-cacy, we’re not going to agree 100 percent of the time. And that’s OK. We learn and grow from disagreement and having different opinions. However, we must not let our disagreements divide us. I see it all too often in the pit bull and rescue animal advocate world. This division keeps us from achieving our mutual goals of ending discrimination, ending animal cruelty, ending dog fighting, and getting every shelter animal into a good home.
Respect one another. Acknowledge that we’re not all going to agree on every part of rescue and advo-cacy. Acknowledge that we all come from different backgrounds and situations that shape who we are. We can’t move forward if we fight. But we can move forward if we have constructive and respectful conver-sations when we disagree. We can’t move forward by disrespecting the very advocates that have the same goal as us: ending discrimination.
