14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
Honorable Councilmembers Mary Lehman, Deni Taveras, Dannielle Glaros, Todd Turner, Andrea Harrison, Derrick Davis, Obie Patterson, Karen Toles, and Chairman Mel Franklin:
We are writing to you today to ask you to please repeal Animal Control code 3-185.01, the breed ban.
As you are probably well aware, with almost one million of us living in Prince George's County, this ban is the second largest in the nation and has earned us an unfortunate negative reputation and notoriety in the region and across the nation. Frankly, I am embarrassed by it. The ban costs me and my fellow taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to enforce -- money that could be paying for firefighters, police officers, hospitals, or education. With all the recent talk of raising property taxes and the past few years of severe budget cuts, furloughs and other austerity measures, let's repeal this unnecessary law instead and save a quarter to a half-million dollars annually!
Animal Management struggles to adequately protect the citizens with the laws that actually DO protect the public. The breed-neutral laws -- nuisance animal laws, dangerous animal laws and laws against animals running at-large are enforceable by behavior and regardless of the breed or type of dog involved. AMD struggles not because the generic laws are inadequate but because the agency simply does not have the human or financial resources to properly enforce those effective laws while they are rounding up and seizing benign family pets that may be of banned breeds but pose no threat to the community. According to Animal Management each animal control officer can spend up to two hours a day dealing with benign dogs simply for what they look like, not for anything they have done. We say "may" because in most cases breed identification is nothing more than a guess. In at least one instance, a dog was impounded for being a "pit bull", but then re-identified as a different breed and adopted outside the county! This is a waste of money!
Not a single legitimate animal or public welfare organization endorses this county's dog ban. Nor does the CDC or even the White House. Hundreds of families every year have their pets ripped from their homes and their arms only to be killed or, for the lucky few, find adoptive families outside the county. How cruel to take people's pets away from them and given to someone else or killed, especially taking them from children who love them.
Studies of Prince George's County health department and animal management statistics reveal 90% of all incidents are by dogs that are not "pit bulls", 85-90% of all incidents by all dogs are classified as NOT severe, and more than 60 different kinds of dogs have been responsible for severe bites over the past 20 years. The people of other Maryland counties don't have a ban -- what's wrong here? The claim that the ban has somehow increased public safety is simply not true anywhere, and especially not in Prince George's County.
Animal Management says the ability to enforce the breed-neutral laws, NOT the breed ban, is what protects me and my neighbors. They know the ban does not make the county safer, and admits there is no objective way to determine breeds or mixes. This makes the law capricious, arbitrarily enforced, and terribly, terribly unfair. The breed ban can be repealed tomorrow and there will still be strong laws currently in place, addressing ALL problem dogs, that will more than adequately protect the public. Please repeal the pit bull ban as soon as possible.
Signed,
<your name here>
cc: County Executive Rushern Baker
Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation
Contact list:
Rushern Baker III
countyexecutive@co.pg.md.us
County Executive
County Administration Building
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
(301) 953-3151 / 4131
Mary Lehman
malehman@co.pg.md.us
District 1 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3887
Deni Traveras
dtaveras@co.pg.md.us
District 2 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-4436
Dannielle Glaros
dmglaros@co.pg.md.us
District 3 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3060
Todd Turner
tmturner@co.pg.md.us
District 4 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3060
Andrea Harrison
aharrison@co.pg.md.us
District 5 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Derrick Davis
dldavis@co.pg.md.us
District 6 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3426
Karen Toles
krtoles@co.pg.md.us
District 7 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Obie Patterson
opatterson@co.pg.md.us
District 8 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Mel Franklin
mfranklin@co.pg.md.us
District 9 Councilman and Chair
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
Honorable Councilmembers Mary Lehman, Deni Taveras, Dannielle Glaros, Todd Turner, Andrea Harrison, Derrick Davis, Obie Patterson, Karen Toles, and Chairman Mel Franklin:
We are writing to you today to ask you to please repeal Animal Control code 3-185.01, the breed ban.
As you are probably well aware, with almost one million of us living in Prince George's County, this ban is the second largest in the nation and has earned us an unfortunate negative reputation and notoriety in the region and across the nation. Frankly, I am embarrassed by it. The ban costs me and my fellow taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to enforce -- money that could be paying for firefighters, police officers, hospitals, or education. With all the recent talk of raising property taxes and the past few years of severe budget cuts, furloughs and other austerity measures, let's repeal this unnecessary law instead and save a quarter to a half-million dollars annually!
Animal Management struggles to adequately protect the citizens with the laws that actually DO protect the public. The breed-neutral laws -- nuisance animal laws, dangerous animal laws and laws against animals running at-large are enforceable by behavior and regardless of the breed or type of dog involved. AMD struggles not because the generic laws are inadequate but because the agency simply does not have the human or financial resources to properly enforce those effective laws while they are rounding up and seizing benign family pets that may be of banned breeds but pose no threat to the community. According to Animal Management each animal control officer can spend up to two hours a day dealing with benign dogs simply for what they look like, not for anything they have done. We say "may" because in most cases breed identification is nothing more than a guess. In at least one instance, a dog was impounded for being a "pit bull", but then re-identified as a different breed and adopted outside the county! This is a waste of money!
Not a single legitimate animal or public welfare organization endorses this county's dog ban. Nor does the CDC or even the White House. Hundreds of families every year have their pets ripped from their homes and their arms only to be killed or, for the lucky few, find adoptive families outside the county. How cruel to take people's pets away from them and given to someone else or killed, especially taking them from children who love them.
Studies of Prince George's County health department and animal management statistics reveal 90% of all incidents are by dogs that are not "pit bulls", 85-90% of all incidents by all dogs are classified as NOT severe, and more than 60 different kinds of dogs have been responsible for severe bites over the past 20 years. The people of other Maryland counties don't have a ban -- what's wrong here? The claim that the ban has somehow increased public safety is simply not true anywhere, and especially not in Prince George's County.
Animal Management says the ability to enforce the breed-neutral laws, NOT the breed ban, is what protects me and my neighbors. They know the ban does not make the county safer, and admits there is no objective way to determine breeds or mixes. This makes the law capricious, arbitrarily enforced, and terribly, terribly unfair. The breed ban can be repealed tomorrow and there will still be strong laws currently in place, addressing ALL problem dogs, that will more than adequately protect the public. Please repeal the pit bull ban as soon as possible.
Signed,
<your name here>
cc: County Executive Rushern Baker
Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation
Contact list:
Rushern Baker III
countyexecutive@co.pg.md.us
County Executive
County Administration Building
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
(301) 953-3151 / 4131
Mary Lehman
malehman@co.pg.md.us
District 1 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3887
Deni Traveras
dtaveras@co.pg.md.us
District 2 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-4436
Dannielle Glaros
dmglaros@co.pg.md.us
District 3 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3060
Todd Turner
tmturner@co.pg.md.us
District 4 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3060
Andrea Harrison
aharrison@co.pg.md.us
District 5 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Derrick Davis
dldavis@co.pg.md.us
District 6 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3426
Karen Toles
krtoles@co.pg.md.us
District 7 Councilwoman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Obie Patterson
opatterson@co.pg.md.us
District 8 Councilman
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
Mel Franklin
mfranklin@co.pg.md.us
District 9 Councilman and Chair
County Administration Building, 2nd Floor
14741 Governor Odin Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-3050
301 952-3700
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