Loudoun County "No Adopt Out" Pit Bull Policy Being Challenged
Judge McCahill Says Case Can Proceed to TrialLoudoun County, VA - Since we're on the subject of intimidation tactics practiced by pit bull owners, let's get back to the case of Loudoun. Last December, Loudoun County Animal Care and Control (LCACC) discovered that an online pit bull forum skewed the results of a survey designed to gage how county residents felt about the shelter's "no adopt out" policy for pit bulls.
"A shelter employee discovered a posting on "www.pitbullforum.com" that encouraged other advocates across the country to participate in Loudoun's survey and vote in favor of lifting its adoption ban. The poster provided a list of 20 Loudoun Zip codes and instructed respondents to delete the cookies stored on their computer so they could take the survey multiple times."
Fortunately the Washington Post newspaper exposed this activity, which delivered a slap to the pit bull spamming community.
Around the same time, a lawsuit was filed against the LCACC saying the "no adopt out" policy was illegal. Recently, Judge Burke F. McCahill denied a request by the LCACC to dismiss the case. Apparently, some law exists in Virginia that denies that a dog can be euthanized on breed alone, no matter if the same breed is taking up 50% plus shelter space and no one wants to adopt the dog anyway.
Virginia dog laws concerning victim rights are so horrendous that top-notch dog bite attorneys don't bother taking cases in the state. Now Virginia residents are faced with the possibility of a judge forcing shelters to release pit bulls back out into the community. Hopefully LCACC can argue why the shelter -- and hundreds of other shelters across the US -- do euthanize pit bulls about 4 times more than other dogs:
Liability.Related article:05/02/08:
In Virginia, Every Dog Still Gets "One Free Bite"12/11/07:
Online Pit Bull Forum Blamed for Skewing Survey ResultsLabels: no adopt policy
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