If you're at all interested in dogs and pit bull-type dogs in particular, and if you keep up with the news about these dogs, then you might be aware of the "Maryland thing."
By "Maryland thing" I mean the current breed-specific legislation that exists for the entire state of Maryland and the events leading up to it.
If you're not familiar with it, the basics of the story are this (as brief as I can make it): a child was attacked and mauled by "pit bulls" in Towson, Maryland in 2007. Thankfully, he survived. The parents of the boy sued the dogs' owner, who then declared bankruptcy. In a further quest to receive compensation for damages, they sued the landlord of the dogs' owner, the idea being that the landlord knew the dogs were dangerous. The case eventually wound up being heard by the Maryland Court of Appeals. Since the landlord could not have known the dogs were dangerous, it seemed like the family of the injured boy would be out of luck. But the Maryland Court of Appeals made an astounding decision: they declared "pit bulls" to be "inherently dangerous." This stunningly unscientific decision, made with the help of a commensurately stunningly unscientific amicus brief which can be read in its entirety at Pit Bulletin Legal News, is now the law of the (Mary)land.
Because the Court of Appeals decision was about as scientifically sound as legislating that the sky is green, advocates immediately protested it. Lawmakers, confronted with facts and statistics from every mainstream animal welfare and scientific organization you can think of, quickly conceded that the breed specificity of the new common law had no basis in reality. This was a great victory for animal lovers, companion animal advocates and pit bull-type dog advocates. However, it was only the beginning of the complexity.
Lawmakers were unwilling to go back to the common law as it was before the judicial decision. Instead, it was proposed that new legislation be crafted that would ostensibly make compensation for victims fairer while uniformly applying any new law to all breeds of dogs. But just how to go about this was not clear, and many conflicting interests resulted in delays. After two "pit bull task force" meetings, a special legislative session in the summer of 2012 during which, it was hoped, new dog bite legislation would be introduced, lawmakers could not come to an agreement about how the new legislation should look. No decision was made, and the problem was pushed to the regular legislative session, which wrapped up just a few days ago as of this writing (April 8, 2013).
Unfortunately, in an outrageous display of incestuous trial lawyer maneuvering and special interest bullying, the legislative session closed without an agreement. The law stands, probably for another year. Another year, during which Maryland families will be forced to lose their canine companions if they conform to the arbitrary visual identification of a landlord as a "pit bull." Another year of uncertainty on the part of insurers and property owners, veterinary clinics and business owners. And another year of taxpayer money wasted.
An unknown once said, "laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." So it was with this latest legislative session. In this case, it was the behavior of the lawmakers themselves that made the lawmaking such an unpleasant experience to hear (the proceedings were broadcast live). B-More Dog summed up the experience and the resulting disappointment better than I could. You can read it here.
And so we (I live in Maryland) find ourselves for another year, at least, in a limbo born of judicial incompetence and legislative failure. I have no idea how many dogs will be surrendered to shelters over the next year, how many families will lose a beloved pet because circumstances prohibit them from moving from an apartment where a landlord feels he or she may be culpable in the unlikely event of a dog attack.
Many of the dogs so surrendered will die, simply because humans - who agree that the dogs are not at all "inherently dangerous" - failed to summon the courage to stop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment