Tenn. Senator not able to enact statewide BSL,

Tennessee

Tenn. Senator not able to enact statewide BSL, still wants local MSN for pit bulls

Controlling dangerous dogs
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

By Adam Crisp
Staff Writer

Eileen Price said there are fewer stray dogs and cats roaming area streets thanks to her low-cost spay/neuter clinic in Red Bank that has seen 6,600 cats and dogs pass through its doors in the past year.

Ms. Price is founder and director of Wally's Friends, which has been in business for about a year and provides surgical sterilization for less than $60.

"Forty-six percent of our females were either in heat or pregnant, so they were well on their way to producing more," Ms. Price said. "If you consider the average litter is four ... and if all of their offspring were not altered, the number gets into the thousands rapidly."

It is those unaltered dogs that pose the most risk to people, said state Sen. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville. He cites studies that suggest dogs that roam, looking to breed, are more prone to attack people and other pets.

Sen. Burchett has not been able to enact legislation that would rein in the state's population of pit bulls, a variety of dog often considered dangerous because of high-profile fatal attacks.

Now, Sen. Burchett said he wants individual county commissions to pass legislation that would make clinics like Ms. Price's required for pit bulls. He admits there's much opposition to breed-specific animal control.

"People are going to have these animals, and I've heard all the arguments that there are more bites by other breeds, but the truth of the matter is fatal attacks: Over half are done by pit bulls," Sen. Burchett said.

Some people just don't want their dogs to be spayed or neutered, said Guy Bilyeu, executive director of the Humane Educational Society of Chattanooga.

"(People) say, 'I wouldn't do that to myself, so I wouldn't do it to my dog,' " he said.

But the procedure can make a dog more docile, less likely to roam and even prevent certain cancers, Mr. Bilyeu said.

At Wally's Friends, 25 to 35 animals undergo the procedure daily.

Ms. Price said the surgery costs $20 to $60, with pregnant and in-heat animals accounting for the high end of that scale.

Sen. Burchett said he does not know how counties would pay to sterilize pit bulls but suggested adding to fees to register animals. Mr. Bilyeu said records show only a sixth of all dogs are registered in Chattanooga, which amounts to about 5,000 animals.

In New Hampshire, stray cats and dogs nearly have been eliminated by mandatory sterilization, which the state paid for by adding fees to rabies shots, Mr. Bilyeu said.
"Vets don't want to have to collect the fee," Sen. Burchett said.

He said he would be satisfied if Knox County, which has formed a panel to study the issue, enacted severe penalties for pet owners who have dogs that attack.

"I mostly just want to get people talking about the issue," Sen. Burchett said.

Enacting laws targeting a specific breed would be tough, Mr. Bilyeu said.

"I personally do not believe in breed-specific legislation because there are some very docile pit bulls, like the ones we're adopting here," Mr. Bilyeu said. "They are very, very sweet, wouldn't harm a fly. They were brought up properly."

Fil Manley agrees. He rescued a starved pit bull from a Wal-Mart parking lot and gained a beloved pet.

Mr. Manley owns four dogs, and all but one have been "fixed," he said.

"I know it's a good thing for dogs to be fixed," Mr. Manley said. "I'm not sure that it's something that should be required."

Ms. Price said spay/neuter clinics help reduce the numbers of roaming animals regardless of the breed.

"We're trying to put a dent in this horrible epidemic of pet overpopulation," Ms. Price said. "It's a huge, monumental effort, and we really need aggressive spay and neutering clinics."

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