By Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com
Update! Local Law 9 was repealed last night after a long night of public outcry from dog owners across Long Island, New York City, and Westchester who were in attendance at the Rockville Centre Village hearing. Due to the large crowd, at least 250 people, the hearing was held in a larger location where everyone who wanted to speak out against this illegal law was able to do so.
A very important point that was made, was the Rockville Centre does not need to add ANY additional dog laws, that there are already state laws in place that are excellent laws to help protect citizens from ANY dog, regardless of the breed, that may be deemed dangerous. A point the Mayor and Trustee David A. Krasula clearly did not know about. Rockville Centre officials need to enforce existing leash laws, NYS Dog Licensing requirements (all dog owners in NYS need to have their dog licensed through the state), and deal with any problem dog (and owner) based on a case by case basis, i.e. the existing state law as described above.
Trustee David A. Krasula who doesn’t seem to be a dog friendly person mentioned that what if ALL dogs were to be muzzled in public, he was booed and yells of “No!” from the crowd. He then suggested what if it was based on dogs over a certain weight – again boos and shouts of no. So think about that, if they decided to add another law of muzzling dogs, ANY DOGS regardless if they have ever done anything but be great dogs, but because they are over a certain weight, they would be need to be muzzled in public? That means YOUR dog too – Labs, Goldens, Standard Poodles, Wheaten Terriers, Dalmatians, Greyhounds, Border Collies, etc. etc. etc., you get the point. This is where BAD laws like this turn too – “Well if we can outlaw certain breeds then why not just muzzle them all?” Because that makes so much sense, right? (Can you hear my sarcasm?). So I would say while we are thrilled the Mayor and trustees that originally voted, (Trustee Oppenheimer voted against the ban from the get go), to ban Pits, Rotties or any dogs that kinda sorta look like one of those breeds, I would tell the dog owning community, especially in Rockville Centre, to pay attention to what your government may try to pull next. Watch their hearing calendar’s like a hawk on their website to make sure another absolutely ridiculous, discriminatory law is not passed.
Rockville Centre needs to offer free education classes to its citizens, like the Towns of Islip does, and Huntington did – and the board of Trustee’s should be in the very first class offered.
There were also at least 25 dogs there with their owners in protest of this (in the parking lot), and while there were different breeds the majority of breeds were Pit Bulls. Every dog was perfectly well behaved, friendly, and super sweet. It is not hard to be a responsible dog owner, own a Pit Bull or Rottweiler and have one of the best dogs in town – the owners & dogs in attendance last night proved that. Two of the sweetest Pit Bulls were there, and they are working therapy dogs here on Long Island.
A sleeping giant awoken…
A huge turnout of dog owners, rescue groups (Littler Shelter, Forgotten Friends of Long Island, Bobbi & the Strays, etc.), and dog organizations, (Rottweiler Club of America, LI Dog Coalition of Dog Fanciers, LI Dog, AKC Members, Long Island Pet Professionals members, Rescue Ink and more), showed up in full force of over 350 people strong to protest and speak their opinion at the Rockville Centre Village hearing on June 28. Only 108 people were let into the actual hearing, and everyone that spoke and addressed the Mayor and Village Trustees were all completely against this ban of Pit Bulls and Rottweilers within the Village (or anywhere for that mattter). The law, enacted on June 8th unbeknownced to anyone in the dog world on Long Island or in the New York area is now suspended until July 20 where their will be a pubic hearing on the topic. It was very clear that the village officials did not expect the giant crowd that attended, and the hearing was delayed a bit before letting anyone in. The police cheif even said, “They were not expecting this many people to show up.”
News vans from ABC, CBS, NBC, News 12 and Fios1 were also there and gave great reports about on each news station. In speaking with fellow outraged dog owners, many were saying how horrible this law is, discriminatory, unfair and illegal too. There were many animal lawyers in attendance that oppose any Breed Specific Legislation and planning on coming back with even more people on July 20 at 7:30pm (Anderson Recreation Center, 111 North Oceanside Road, Rockville Centre, NY). Rockville Centre Village officials should plan to host the July 20 meeting in the local high school auditorium as everyone there plans on coming back and bringing even more dog owners with them. *Note the location change above – guess they were listening.
Frankie – too cute!
People all the way down the street and around the corner.
Rescue Ink crew
Standing room only
By Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com
Breed Specific Legislation on Long Island?
On June 8, 2010 the Village of Rockville Centre, NY passed a new law banning two popular breeds of dog here on Long Island, the Rottweiler and the American Pit Bull Terrier/American Staffordshire Terrier — or any dog that resembles that breed. The catch is, this law is completely illegal and cannot be enforced by village authorities. Why is this law illegal? The law is illegal because New York State prohibits any municipality, (hamlet, village, town, city, county), from banning a dog based on breed alone:
New York State is one of 13 states that prohibit discriminatory breed profiling and breed specific dangerous dog laws. New York municipalities with breed specific laws cannot legally enforce them. Article 7, Paragraph 107, Section 5 of Agriculture and Markets law states:
Nothing contained in this article shall prevent a municipality from adopting its own program for the control of dangerous dogs; provided, however, that no such program shall be less stringent than this article, and no such program shall regulate such dogs in a manner that is specific as to breed.
Link to law: http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/AI/AGM_ART_7.html
The outrage of this illegal law being passed is growing like wildfire as many responsible dog owners on Long Island are finding out about this. There was no reason or incident for the village of Rockville Centre to pass such a law, according to the LI Herald report, (http://bit.ly/bRfZdr), just complaints about one house with a few supposed American Pit Bull Terriers. Even if there was an incident, the Village is still prohibited from passing such a law based breed alone. So it makes you wonder what message the Village of Rockville Centre is really trying to get across? If there was a real problem, did RVC officials reach out to any of the many dog organizations, experts or canine behaviorists for help or guidance? Or was this yet another knee jerk reaction to a complaint on one house by neighbors?
Luckily for the dogs on Long Island we are an immensely strong community of voting citizens and will not stand for any illegal discriminatory laws against any breed of dog. RVC should take a lesson from the dog friendly Towns of Islip and Huntington who have offered and still offer Free Responsible Dog Ownership classes, which have been a huge success in helping educate dog owners of all breeds including Rotties & American Pit Bull Terriers. RVC should pay attention to the many amazing dog groups, trainers and associations that are helping every day to keep Long Island, dog friendly and dog safe. RVC should embrace the hundreds of people planning on attending the hearing at their Village Hall, (1 College Place, Rockville Centre, NY), on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:30pm, where the LI Coalition of Dog Fanciers who will be addressing Village officials. The Mayor and Trustees should be open minded and learn from the many professionals, who work and live on Long Island who happen to own dogs, including the breeds they think they can ban. We should also applaud Trustee Edward Oppenheimer as he was the only member of the board that voted against this. According the LIHerald article, Oppenheimer said he felt the village’s current vicious animal law was sufficient, and that it wasn’t necessarily right or fair to target specific breeds of dogs. (Oppenheimer for President!).
If you are a resident of Rockville Centre and happen to own one of these wonderful breeds of dog, your dog is grandfathered in, meaning you can keep your dog if you already owned it prior to this illegal law being passed under our noses. Here is a link to this absolutely ridiculous, illegal law.
http://www.rvcny.us/rvcagenda/2010%20DOCS-773201-v1-RVC_LL_9-10_pit_bulls.pdf
RVC needs to rescind this law and apologize to dog owners in Rockville Centre, on Long Island and in NYS. If that is not done by June 29, I think the trustees should prepare themselves for a lot of dog loving and upset folks to be at that hearing.
June 25th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I am completely shocked at this, had no idea this was happening here on Long Island. it needs to be stopped. People need to be educated when they adopt (or buy) a dog of any breed. Rockville Center really needs to have a Responsible Dog Ownership Class. I attended one of this about two years ago to see what it was all about and was completely amazed at the dedicated people who donated their time to help people who owned dogs. It was also a wonderful help for people who were considering getting a dog. I cannot say enough good things about the Responsible Dog Ownership Classes whihc are given in both Huntington and Islip. I am completely against any sort of BSL. We all need to stand against this both for Rockville Center residents and to keep it out of our own towns as well.
June 25th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Alberta,
Thank you for the feedback! I was the one teaching that class! Still offered in Islip. I met with the Town of Hempstead to offer the class, but they didn’t seem interested at the time. Maybe after this mess they will re-visit and let me teach it there!
Hope you can show up on Tuesday!
June 25th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Yes I remembered that, you did (and still do) a wonderful job. I said then, as I do now, all towns should offer these classes. It would help the over populated shelter situation and prevent bites. I posted this on my website:
http://www.doggybagonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=429&p=1332#p1332
and our page on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Doggybag-Online/110348499001817
If not for a prior committment, I would be there. I hope anyone who can shows up to tell RC what they think about BSL!
Thank you so much for getting the word out.