Miami-Dade County pit bull owners use service-animal loophole to skirt breed ban

MIAMI — Officials in Miami-Dade County say a small but growing group of pit bull owners has found a loophole in the county's ban against the breed.

Miami-Dade Animal Services reports that about a half-dozen pit bulls have been registered as service animals for people with disabilities. Federal rules governing service animals trump the local ban, enacted in 1989 after an 8-year-old girl was mauled by a neighbor's pit bull.

Investigator supervisor Kathy Labrada says it's a challenge to verify that a pit bull is a service animal because the federal rules don't require any special certification and restrict what the county can ask about an individual's disabilities.

Pit bull owners can face a $500 fine and possible court hearings in Miami-Dade, which considers the breed to be dangerous.

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-- Associated Press

Photo: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[L.A. Voter]

Breed-specific legislation is just wrong. You don't kill a dog for what he looks like, it goes against everything we stand for as Americans. Yes, dog attacks occur, but if I get carjacked by a Dutch man I don't get to create a law that says since one Dutch guy broke the law all Dutch people, or people who I suspect may have some Dutch blood, have to leave my city or be killed.

It's also worth noting that dog breeds are, often as not, in the eye of the beholder. I work with shelter dogs and I've had people tell me that the Pointer mix I'm walking is a Pit Bull. I've had people tell me they believed a dog was a Pit for no other reason than because she had a brindle coat. You have to ask WHO is making the determination that a dog is a specific breed before that dog is taken from his or her owner and killed. And remember, under breed-specific legislation that dog doesn't have to have done anything wrong to be killed.

It's worth noting that Miami-Dade Animal Control has its own documentary series, "Miami Animal police." In one episode I saw a few years ago, a dog owner contended to an animal control officer that not only was his dog not a Pit Bull, but rather an American Bulldog, a breed not covered by the ban, but that he had brought proof of that fact in the form of a letter from his vet. The officer's response? "You and I both know that it's [sic] a Pit Bull." This officer's opinion, unsupported by any veterinary evidence, overruled documentation by a vet. That's not justice, that's a police state.

You don't kill a dog for what he or she looks like, regardless of the fact that he or she may never have displayed one whit of aggression. Breed-specific legislation is just institutionalized animal cruelty and mob rule. It needs to stop.

[hernan]

I have a chihuahua that is very agressive and whoever comes in my house she bites them. Is miami dade going to ban chihuahuas too??
what about rotties, german shepherds, Amer. bulldogs, etc?
We should ban the owners not the dogs.