Letter: Pasco’s pit bull law is doggy discrimination
It’s time to end dog bigotry in Pasco.
This city has a great tradition of inclusion that dates all the way back to its origins as a railroad town employing foreign workers. Even when other cities in the region had black-after-dark laws, Pasco embraced a multicultural community. Pasco has never been about judging people based on their skin color. Yet it has a law on the books that says your dog is a “potentially dangerous animal” if it looks like it is part pit bull.
The definition in PMC 8.02.010 (17) for potentially dangerous animals is very reasonable and based on the individual animal’s own actions, right up to section (d) where suddenly any dog with an identifiable component of pit bull in its appearance is labeled as a potential criminal. This definition literally spends more time telling you what a bad dog looks like than it does telling you how a bad dog acts.
The members of the new Pasco City Council have an opportunity here, a chance to say that Pasco will not judge their four-legged residents any differently than their two-legged ones, with the chance to show their potential without being condemned for their appearance.
Dave Allen, Pasco
This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Letter: Pasco’s pit bull law is doggy discrimination."