Massachusetts is a mess

Apparently Massachusetts, USA was considering a state-wide ban...and check out what the village of Canton did because of one scofflaw family (second last paragraph). Yea, they can't control one bunch of scofflaws, so they pass a breed ban. Ooh, that's sensible government.

Legislators refuse to learn from the experiences of other jurisdictions where breed specific legislation has been a spectacular failure. They also don't take into consideration the increased costs to the taxpayers when BSL is passed - defending lawsuits against the law, against misidentification of a seized dog, increased enforcement costs (which puzzles me since their dog law enforcement was obviously a dud before).

I received a nice note from State Representative Denis Guyer (the only representative to actually respond to my correspondence - I got auto-replies from others and nothing from the rest), which said in part:

"To my knowledge, The Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government will not be making any judgment on the legislation, but rather is holding an upcoming informatory hearing to study the issue further. I have not made any judgment on the subject and will be keeping an open mind during the hearing to make the best and most responsible decision."

Let's hope that the Massachusetts committee has its ears open, unlike the Ontario Fiberals who held sham hearings using taxpayers' money, ignored the expert testimony and barreled ahead with their BS...L, and played with their....Blackberries while people were testifying, which to me was incredibly rude and dismissive. As chico bandido pointed out, some Fibs voted without hearing a word of testimony. That doesn't bode well for a fair hearing in this province for anyone while the Fibs are in power.