USA: Victory: After Six Weeks, Long Island Town Repeals Breed Ban

[Twitchin Kitten]

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This is great news for all responsible bully breed owners in NY!

Victory: After Six Weeks, Long Island Town Repeals Breed Ban <-- click to go to page

<-- click to learn about breed specific legislation

On July 20, hundreds of outraged citizens, many of whom were accompanied by their dogs, attended a meeting of the Rockville Centre Village Board of Trustees in Nassau County, Long Island. The issue at hand was Local Law 9, a village ordinance banning the ownership of Rottweilers and dogs the Village deemed to be Pit Bulls. Since the law’s quiet passage on June 8, Rockville Centre had drawn significant attention from the region’s anti-BSL (breed-specific legislation) activists and become an unexpected focus of media interest. The pressure worked: the board, newly persuaded that the ordinance violated state law, voted to repeal it.

The ASPCA’s Stacy Wolf, Vice President & Chief Legal Counsel for Humane Law Enforcement, and Debora Bresch, Senior Director of Government Relations for the Eastern Region—both New York State-licensed attorneys and experts on BSL—drafted the ASPCA’s letter of opposition to Local Law 9 and submitted it to Rockville Centre’s mayor and village administrator. Among other points, the letter explained that the law was in direct violation of the State’s Agriculture and Markets Law Section 107 (5), which prohibits local governments from passing dangerous dog laws that are specific as to breed.

“New York State’s dangerous dog law was expressly intended to prevent local governments from singling out dogs for enhanced regulation based on breed,” says Bresch. “In addition, the Rockville Centre ordinance failed on constitutional grounds, failing to provide dog owners with sufficient due process to protect their interests in their dogs.”

It should be noted that Rockville Centre already has a dangerous dog law on its books. According to a village spokesperson who spoke with CBS News, passage of Local Law 9 was prompted by fear following unspecified “incidents,” none of which involved bites or formal police action (not a single report was filed).

The ASPCA is opposed to BSL, instead favoring comprehensive, breed-neutral dangerous dog laws. Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to learn why BSL doesn’t work and what the ASPCA is doing to fight it.