Malden city council passes breed-specific legislation (BSL)
On Tuesday, April 3rd, the Malden City Council voted for a proposal that focuses only on certain breeds of dogs. This ordinance had already received unanimous support from the Ordinance Committee.
Read the ordinance and votes from April 3rd and Malden's existing dangerous dog ordinance.
Follow the story via the MaldenPatch website and an update from the April 3rd meeting; read a Boston Globe article about the Malden ordinance and the mayor's pending decision.
Click here for information on the mayor and city councilors. Ask the mayor to veto it.
We all want to prevent dog bites, but the MSPCA believes that breed-specific laws are not an effective way to control dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs, for many reasons, including:
1) This type of law does not impact dogs of other breeds who may be dangerous.
2) Such an approach unfairly brands all dogs of a particular breed, regardless of their behavioral history, as dangerous.
3) When communities concentrate their public protection efforts on specific breeds, they only address the dogs, rather than dealing with the true cause of these threats to public safety: pet owner irresponsibility.
The city of Malden can resolve conflicts with dangerous dogs of any breed in a humane and effective manner by enforcing existing dangerous dog laws. For more information, see www.mspca.org/bsl.
MALDEN CITY COUNCIL (contact your ward councilor and all At-Large councilors). Look up your ward councilor here -- look for your ward number and match it to the city council members). Ask them to OPPOSE breed-specific legislation and adopt other, effective measures to prevent dog bites from any breed of dog.
