When the Law Outlaws Pitbulls

Seems we need to clarify something we ran in our spring issue...In the Bark of the Town section on page 13, we include a mention about a recent breed ban in Royal City, Wash. The ordinance bans pit bulls and rottweilers from the town and the mayor is quoted as saying, "...the people who have these kinds of dogs are not always the most responsible." Because we included this quote without a follow up comment from CityDog (like "What the...?"), it could seem that we endorse this comment. In fact, a reader was under this impression. We do NOT agree with this statement. We agree with our reader that irresponsible dog ownership is not breed specific. Period. One of our favorite local organizations is the Pit Bull Project, www.pitbullproject.org (we featured an article on the Project in our Winter 2005 issue), and the work Anne Holte and her network of volunteers have done to not only rescue these dogs, but also educate people on the breed. We understand that this is a sensitive issue and will be sure to follow up on this topic in our summer issue. As always, thank you to our readers for keeping us on our toes!