Bubbaworld

On Monday, February 20th, the Oklahoma House Committee of Health and Human Services is scheduled to hear two bills by Representative Paul Wesselhoft, of Moore. If either of these ill advised bills ultimately become law the implications for many thousands of Oklahoma dog owners are immense.

Basically, Wesselhoft is attempting to ban not only pit bulls but also dogs that just happen to look like pit bulls, regardless of their actual breed. As a backup plan, Wesselhoft has a second bill in the process which would punish the owners of all large breed dogs, although not as severely as he evidently wishes to punish owners of pit bulls.

Wesselhoft goes so far as to threaten a repeal of provisions of a 1991 law that forbids municipalities from enacting breed-specific ordinances if neither of his ‘dog bills’ become law.

The first of Wesselhoft’s bills, House Bill 2658, would in effect ban pit bull dogs from Oklahoma. HB 2658 applies to American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the physical traits of any one or more the above breeds. The bill if passed would create a statewide registry of pit bulls in Oklahoma, impose reporting duties on pit bull owners, and place additional burdens on pit bull ownership. Under this bill all pit bull owners would be required to:

pen their pets inside childproof, 8-foot-high enclosure with top and bottom, spay or neuter all pit bulls, and carry a $100,000 liability insurance policy on each dog.

The bill also would prohibit the transfer of any pit bull except between family members and prohibit Oklahoma residents from importing a pit bull from another state.

The second bill, House Bill 2657, is Wesselhoft’s backup plan. One that while not effectively banning all large breed dogs from Oklahoma would impose severe and unjust burdens on all owners of dogs Wesselhoft considers “a potentially dangerous dog“, which his bill defines as a “dog or breed of dog that is characterized by physical strength, a muscular body, and powerful jaws.” By that definition the law would apply to all so called ‘working’ dogs, including but not limited to all terriers, all retrievers, all shephards and all ‘guard type breeds’.

Wesselhoft’s second bill, his backup threat, includes everything in his pit bull ban except the spay/neuter requirement and the prohibition on transfers. Other than that, HB 2657 imposes the identical and onerous requirements on all large breed dog owners in Oklahoma that his first bill imposes only upon pit bull owners.

Representative Glen Smithson, of Sallisaw, has introduced a much more reasonable bill to address the issue of truly dangerous dogs. Smithson’s House Bill 2076 would broaden the definition of a potentially dangerous dog by adding a reasonable person standard and stiffen penalties for owners of dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs who allow their dogs to roam unattended. This common sense legislation is night and day different than Wesselhoft’s ‘shotgun approach’ which would require thousands of Oklahoma dog owners to purchase expensive and unnecessary insurance on each dog, confine within pens dogs which present no danger to anyone and ultimately make Oklahoma a laughingstock once again.

In light of the fact that far more people die annually of gunshot wounds in Oklahoma than die from attacks by all dog breeds combined, one can only wonder how long it will be before Representative Wesselhoft proposes legislation to require all Oklahomans to register all of their firearms and obtain a $100,000 liability insurance policy for each.