Speier Pulls a Fast One on BSL
Once again, leave it to a liberal to do the wrong thing, even on an issue that is not traditionally viewed in terms of liberal vs. conservative. Via Classical Values, Uncly-Wuncly and San Jose Mercury-News (BugMeNot), we learn that State Sen. Jackie Speier, (TAKEAWILDGUESS-San Mateo), has introduced gutted and amended S.enate Bill 861 to allow breed-specific legislation (BSL) in California. On the one hand, I suppose I should be congratulating Gavin Newsom for finally working with the Legislature to “fix” a state law he doesn’t like rather than simply ignore it as he usually does. On the other, I’m a much bigger fan of the regular Olympics than the Special Olympics, so I’m loathe to give Frisco a medal for following a basic procedure we rightly expect any other city to follow as a matter of course, especially when the bill being pushed is a bad one.
Speier’s Bill would generally allow cities and counties to enact BSL, by amending the anti-BSL clause of Food & Agriculture Code Section Section 31683, which currently says this:
…[N]o [city or county] program shall regulate [potentially dangerous or vicious] dogs in a manner that is specific as to breed.
To say this, instead:
Cities and counties may pass breed specific legislation to address public safety and welfare concerns in their communities, provided that no program shall institute a ban specific as to breed.
Lovely. In other words, Frisco won’t be allowed go the way of its PETA adherents or its would-be sister city Denver, but they could come damned close. If this turkey passes, watch for Frisco to pass incredibly onerous “regulations” applicable to pit bull owners only (or maybe applicable to Rottweiler owners, too, but not to owners of presa canarios, as that would make too much sense), followed by inevitable lawsuits over which regulations are permissible, vs. which ones are merely a ban under a different name. Call it the Lawyers Full Employment Act of 2005.
September 17th, 2005 at 10:38 am
This is the worst kind of California legislation. This woman is leveraging the dog thing into publicity for her Lt Gov campaign. What a loser? Tell all your lib friends to Vote for Garamendi in March.