The Crisis of Choosing Between Owning a Dog and Obtaining Home Owners Insurance (Part 2 of 2 Article)

The dogs aren't the bad guys. Animal law making people are.

3 Sept 09

By Dean A. Ayers

Lead Investigative Reporter

NationalDogPress ©

Dogs have never been more a part of our lives than they are today. Even though nearly 45 million American homes have at least one canine family member, dogs are being forced out of their homes by various dog ban legislation and by home owner’s insurance outrageous premiums as a result of legislation dog insurance mandates. These mandated dog insurance policies are being pushed by various animal rights activist groups, and law making people who ‘buy into’ the local media ‘hype’ when a dog bite incident occurs on private property or in the community. Additionally, these slanted propaganda media blitz’s about dangerous dogs and potential dangerous dog breeds are over-emphasized by the main stream media to ‘push’ dogs into being banned out of entire communities. In fact, this “potential dangerous dog” media hysteria is occurring nation wide in ever-increasing numbers, however this article's factual information contend that the headlines fail to tell the whole story about actual and realistic dog behavior.

For a real example of what ‘propaganda’ dangerous dog and dog bite ‘hype’ can do, you have to look no farther than in Denver, Colorado. Denver has one of the toughest pit bull bans in the country. Some 2,000 pit bulls were put to death there last year alone because of it. Denver, CO. has allegedly become known as the ‘dog hating’ capital of the nation.

Around the country, banning pit bulls has become the most popular answer to the potential ‘dangerous dog’ question. Many states and the municipalities alike, just like Omaha, Nebraska, and Mills County, Iowa, have now implemented major animal care and control legislation and these areas like the rest of the country have jumped on the animal rights dangerous dog 'ban' wagon. In Mills County, Iowa, if your harmless dog escapes off your property three times, the County will designate your dog as a “dangerous dog.”  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize this tyranny legislation is going to have a great economic hardship on the dog owner’s home owner insurance premium and even the dog, if the owner can no longer afford to keep the dog due to fees, fines, and potential confiscation and euthanasia of the dog. Additionally, a cursory review of the Mills County, Iowa animal care and control ordinance disclosed there is no lawful and constitutional ‘due process’ afforded in the legislation for proper hearings and testimony for the dog owner, before the county animal control authorities can ‘legally’ confiscate, seize or euthanize your dogs. Like Mills County, Iowa a vast majority of these ‘animal care and controlling’ dog ordinances and legislation ‘fail’ to implement any constitutional ‘due process’ what so ever in their animal control regulations. Instead these ordinances and legislation designate animal control authorities the ability to ‘make life altering judgments about your dogs, without fact or proven evidence’ to ‘label’ your dog as a ‘dangerous dog.’ Without any lawful and constitutional means of evidence or hearing to do so animal control can invoke search, seizure, confiscation, and euthanasia of your dog on private property without a criminal act having taken place.

Even in the Mills County, Iowa animal care and control ordinance their “Board of Supervisors’ controlling these communities and locals, are giving themselves a ‘dictatorial’ authority to direct dogs be ‘euthanized’ at their discretion of any facts, without any true lawful hearing for the dog owners, to present a defense and witnesses on their behalf. And this is not just in Mills County, Iowa, this is happening across the USA in all communities and counties nation wide. This is complete and total ‘tyranny’ of government in animal control, thus causing insurance companies to also implement tyranny in home owner insurance policies, making it almost impossible to ‘afford’ to keep your dog on your own property.

The identification of a potentially dangerous dog always begins with the biggest and saddest stereo-types of the popular man loving dogs like the Rottweilers. The Rottweiler dog breed is ranked second only to pit bulls for their involvement in fatal dog attacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Little wonder that they've been singled out for special rules and restrictive animal control regulations. But let's not forget German shepherds, which also are high on the fatal-bite list. Also add Doberman pinschers, Akitas, Chows, Belgian Malinois, Alaskan Malamutes, Siberian Huskies, Irish Wolfhounds, Great Danes and Shar Pei, just to name a few. All of which are becoming among the chosen dog breeds being banned or strictly regulated under various current Breed Specific Legislation (BSL), “Dangerous Dog” legislations, and ultimately by legislation ‘mandated’ dog bite insurance policies of $100,000 or greater per dog all the way to a million dollar mandated dog bite policy for one dog on private property.

Insurance premiums such as this being ‘mandated’ in animal legislation will destroy any possibility of a responsible dog owner to keep their dog, or they face becoming a ‘criminal’ for defending their dog on their own private property. These tyranny dog legislation and ordinances in all communities are insuring that any lawful attempt by you as good law abiding citizens to prevent access to your dogs on your private property can be overcome by animal control simply going to a magistrate and stating the owner refuses inspection access to their private property, in these tyranny animal ordinances. No evidence of a ‘crime’ need be presented to obtain a warrant to enter your private property anymore with this kind of tyranny in the legislation and ordinances. Good bye dog owners, if you resist, and goodbye to your dogs thru fees, fines, confiscations, seizures, and dog euthanasia without any legal and proper constitutional hearing to prevent these ‘assassinations’ by animal control authorities nation wide. And if you manage to even get your confiscated dog back, it will cost you dearly, in fees, fines, RFID mandatory chipping, spay/neuter before they can be returned, license fees, and boarding for the animal, or you will ‘not’ get your dogs back from animal control and their humane society shelters. Essentially this is a ‘legal' maneuver for the county or municipality to ‘steal’ your dogs away from you, and sell them for a profit (as a rescue) while billing you for the expenses of the entire affair. The insurance companies making these dog ‘ban’ lists or ‘blacklists” of dog breeds may not be the direct ‘villain’ in these tyranny legislations, but they sure are playing directly into the hands of the law makers that are ‘mandating’ these tyranny insurance policies on owners of the newly designated ‘banned’ or designated ‘potentially dangerous’ dog breeds, which also include any ‘look alike’ dogs as well.

There are currently 75 banned dog breeds across the U.S. that is banned by various home owner insurance companies as follows: 

1. AIREDALE TERRIER 
2. AKBASH 
3. AKITA 
4. ALAPAHA BLUE BLOOD BULLDOG 
5. ALASKAN MALAMUTE 
6. ALSATIAN SHEPHERD 
7. AMERICAN BULLDOG
8. AMERICAN HUSKY 
9. AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER 
10. AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER 
11. AMERICAN WOLFDOG 
12. ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD 
13. ARIKARA DOG 
14. AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG 
15. AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD 
16. BELGIAN MALINOIS 
17. BELGIAN SHEEPDOG 
18. BELGIAN TURVUREN 
19. BLUE HEELER 
20. BOERBUL 
21. BORZOI 
22. BOSTON TERRIER 
23. BOUVIER DES FLANDRES 
24. BOXER 
25. BULLDOG 
26. BULL TERRIER
27. BULL MASTIFF 
28. CANE CORSO 
29. CATAHOULA LEOPARD DOG 
30. CAUCASIAN SHEPHERD 
31. CHINESE SHAR PEI 
32. CHOW-CHOW 
33. COLORADO DOG 
34. DOBERMAN PINSCHER 
35. DOGO DE ARGENTINO 
36. DOGUE DE BORDEAUX 
37. ENGLISH MASTIFFS 
38. ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL 
39. ESKIMO DOG 
40. ESTRELA MOUNTAIN DOG 
41. FILA BRASILIERO 
42. FOX TERRIER 
43. FRENCH BULLDOG 
44. GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG 
45. GOLDEN RETRIEVER 
46. GREENLAND HUSKY 
47. GREAT DANE 
48. GREAT PYRANEES 
49. ITALIAN MASTIFF 
50. KANGAL DOG 
51. KEESHOND 
52. KOMONDOR 
53. KOTEZEBUE HUSKY 
54. KUVAZ 
55. LABRADOR RETRIEVER 
56. LEONBERGER 
57. MASTIFF 
58. NEOPOLITAN MASTIFF 
59. NEWFOUNDLAND 
60. OTTERHOUND 
61. PRESA DE CANARIO 
62. PRESA DE MALLORQUIN 
63. PUG 
64. ROTTWEILER 
65. SAARLOOS WOLFHOND 
66. SAINT BERNARD 
67. SAMOYED 
68. SCOTTISH DEERHOUND 
69. SIBERIAN HUSKY 
70. SPANISH MASTIFF 
71. STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER 
72. TIMBER SHEPHERD 
73. TOSA INU 
74. TUNDRA SHEPHERD 
75. WOLF SPITZ

How's that for scary? Are you as a responsible owner, of one of these dog breeds wide awake now? How about just owning a dog that looks like one of these banned dog breeds?

The number of breeds already deemed dangerous should be enough to make any dog owner dizzy. But the proliferation of breed-specific legislation and dangerous dog legislation was initially sparked the various dangerous dog Summits around the country and also includes dog bans on any mixes thereof, as well as dog bans on many dogs of a certain size.

In Fairfield, Iowa, for example, any dog over 100 pounds is subject to regulations. By definition alone, that would include such breeds as the borzoi, the Great Pyrenees, the Newfoundland and the St. Bernard. Some dogs that have caused serious injury have managed to escape the bans for now.

Last year, there were 26 human fatalities from dog bite injuries. It's unclear how many serious bite injuries dogs inflict each year, but estimates based on the last major study of cases treated in hospital emergency rooms puts the number at around 334,000. 

Children under 10, the main victims of dog bites, are two times more likely to drown in a five-gallon bucket, and 1 1/2 times more likely to die from injuries caused by playground equipment, than they are to die from a dog attack.

Some figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also may help put the dog-bite situation into perspective: Between 1997 and 2002 in Colorado, one child was killed by a dog. Between 1997 and 2002 in the United States, one child was killed in an alcohol-related motor-vehicle accident every day.

If we have dangerous-dog problem in specific areas it is because twenty-five percent of dogs involved in fatal attacks are chained or otherwise confined excessively. Others are poorly trained or poorly handled guard dogs. Or used as a macho status symbol for young gang-bangers. Some dogs are victims of domestic violence.

Chained dogs are also 'not' the problem: 

Many poorly thought out, inappropriate and misguided "tethering" laws are being proposed around the country. These restrictive 'tethering' laws would be in many breed types, inappropriate in a dog's proper care with any responsible dog owner. Many performance dogs ‘prefer’ to be outside and are best chained for their own protection. Experts in proper dog care performance have found that dogs that are permitted to roam freely are more apt to join up with other free roaming dogs and attack. Of course, there are those that are chained "just because" and not well cared for to begin with. Some call them 'junk-yard' dogs.

Breed bans are an emotional response to unfortunate incidents: 

They're a response to dog attack fear, not to facts. All dogs bite, and all can potentially cause serious injuries. No scientific studies have proven that one breed bites more than any other.

Existing animal-control laws aren't properly enforced. If they were, many of the problems related to dangerous dogs, mistreated/mishandled junk-yard dog-chained dogs, or dogs running loose would be lessened. When animal control targets 'petty' animal rights issues for criminal action, they are taking away serious potential to stop actual dangerous dog situations, caused by the poor quality handling/training in the owners.

When breeds are banned or designated as ‘dangerous dog’ breeds: 

The irresponsible dog owners will continue to ignore the laws, or turn to other breeds, re-creating the problem. Shelter systems and animal-control 'claim' they may not be able to handle all the surplus animals. Actually the facts are disclosing animal shelter/rescue destructive practices to sustain a 'pet-overpopulation' in order to seek more animal control funding and donations.

Studies have shown that animal-control officers cannot identify "pit bull terriers" beyond a reasonable doubt and have miss-identified dogs that did not look like a pit bull, even if it was 50 percent pit bull; yet the dog was not considered a pit bull. But if a dog 'looked' like a pit, it was considered a pit, no matter what the percentage of the breed.

One thing that always stands out about dogs is that dogs throughout history are documented and known to be entirely a ‘responsive’ species. This Investigative Reporter notes that "we can breed them and train them to be any way we want them to be”. All dogs just want, is just to please us. If we humans as their owners want our dogs to herd, they'll do it. If we want our dogs just to just cozy up with us on the sofa, they'll do that. So if we ask our dogs to become aggressive and violent, either intentionally or through irresponsibility, “they will respond that way."

The dogs aren't the bad guys. People are. 

The dogs are the victims, not just of irresponsible breeders and owners but of the violence that pervades of our whole society. No one in law considers the ‘Intrinsic value’ established by precedent setting lawful court cases that establish dogs as being more than just ‘chattel.’ No lawful ‘due process’ is included in the animal control legislation that meet a constitutional challenge. Rather these tyranny animal control laws are approved ‘knowing’ that virtually no one owning a dog, can sustain a lengthy and costly court battle to establish the ‘unconstitutional’ provisions within these tyranny animal care and control laws on the books, nation wide.

On one level the dangerous dog prevention measures need to be about restoring the family image of the bully breeds. Also about objecting to the breed-specific laws and potentially dangerous dog breed laws that threaten to deprive dog owners of their animals and about turning pet owners and breeders into responsible animal property owners.

But at a deeper level, it's about ending the cycle of violence by starting a campaign of kindness. 

"Kindness" is to the owner's animals, as kindness is to each other by not 'over-reacting' to isolated dog attacks by installing and promoting 'bad' dangerous dog legislation. It's that simple.

But each of us as individuals and as a society will make the world a better place for all of us if we only give our dog's love, teach them kindness for each of us and each other, and give kindness to all animals, with a chance to thrive in preserving dog and pet ownership with freedom on private property with dog ownership responsibility. In this manner we can then avoid the crisis of choosing between owning a dog and still being able to obtain home owners insurance.

I Say: 'A man's religion of dog ownership is not worth its salt, if his/her dogs are not the better for it.' 

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