Vet warns dog owners to stay out of Denver, Colorado
By Dr. Paula Terifaj Photo by Lisa Scarsi Photography
In the summer of 2005, I discovered an outbreak of a deadly dog disease some 800 miles east of my veterinary practice in California. Nothing in my medical training had prepared me to battle this sickness. Nothing in my black bag of medical tricks would prove effective. It wasn't a new virus or resistant strain of bacteria that was killing dogs in Denver, Colo. - it was city politics. City ordinance Sec. 8-55 of Denver's Municipal Code mandates the confiscation and killing of any dog fitting the description of a "pit bull" or a mixed breed dog having the physical characteristics of a "pit bull." Code for mass breed extermination - under the sanction of what is commonly referred to as BSL (Breed Specific Legislation). BSL is the ugly face of dog breed discrimination.
Enforcement of Denver's blind breed ban has led to the senseless killing of innocent family pets"”animals that I have taken a solemn oath to protect from any measure of cruelty. Denver's law violates my professional ethics and challenges our Constitutional rights. This can't happen in America and yet it is! Denver copycat cities (to name a few) have sprung up in the states of Ohio, Missouri, Kansas and Texas.
As a result of breed discriminatory laws, it's become my professional duty to caution clients who may own any one of 15 blacklisted dog breeds. Clients are warned to carefully read their homeowners policies for dog breed exclusions and study city ordinances before they travel or re-locate. Unsuspecting travelers through Denver have reported police harassment when their dogs were impounded.
When city leaders believe the remedy for public safety is to exterminate family dogs based on breed, not behavior, they show a reckless disregard of factual data and expert testimony. As early as 1982, a five-year study which was published in the Cincinnati Law Review in 1982, vol. 53, which specifically considered both Rottweilers and "Pit Bulls," concluded in part that:
"¢ The statistics did not support the assertion that any one breed was dangerous.
"¢ When legislation is focused on the type of dog, it fails because it is unenforceable, confusing and costly to taxpayers.
"¢ Focusing legislation on dogs distracts attention from the real problem, which is irresponsible dog ownership.
Doctors are skilled detectives in white coats. We are trained to ask the right questions - carefully using our hands, ears and eyes to examine our patients. Next, we decipher the results of diagnostic tests. We must make the right diagnosis before we can deliver the cure. Make the wrong diagnosis or administer the wrong treatment and the legal doorway to malpractice opens wide.
Government needs the same accountability. When Denver city representatives were allowed to legislate personal bias, ignoring documented facts and truths, they acted on fear, not reason. Ignorance misdiagnosed is the real problem. Deafness administered the wrong treatment. Hundreds of good family dogs are dead; others await execution at the Denver Municipal Shelter.
ROVERlution.org is a national grassroots protest movement to end breed discrimination.
ROVERlution is a call to action, as government and business practices are electing to infringe upon your rights, your freedoms and your dog.
To get involved please contact: Paula Terifaj, DVM Founders Veterinary Clinic 330 N. Brea Boulevard, Suite F Brea, CA 92821 (714) 990-0661
