Board Retains Ban on Pit Bull Adoptions

By Bill Brubaker (Contact)

Originally published at 12:00 a.m., December 19, 2007
Updated at 5:59 p.m., December 19, 2007

It wasn’t a good day to be a pit bull in Loudoun County.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors decided that the Loudoun County Animal Shelter’s decades-old ban on the adoption of pit bulls by the general public will stand.

That means that full-blooded and mixed-breed pit bulls deemed to be adoptable at the county-run shelter will continue to be euthanized if they are not reclaimed by their owners or taken in by other shelters or rescue groups.

By a 6 to 3 vote, the supervisors rejected a recommendation from their animal advisory committee that would have allowed pit bulls to be adopted after they had been tested and their prospective owners screened.

“In the end, I would guess that public safety was the number one issue with the supervisors,” said Thomas Koenig, director of Loudoun’s Department of Animal Care and Control, which runs the shelter in Waterford.

Pit bulls are a much-vilified breed, associated with dogfights and vicious bites. But some make wonderful pets, officials at many shelters say. Most publicly funded shelters in the Washington region, unlike the one in Loudoun, allow adoptions of pit bulls that have been deemed safe through temperament testing.

It may not have been a good sign for pit bulls that this was item No. 13 on the supervisors’ Tuesday agenda.

Shelter manager Inga Fricke began with a PowerPoint presentation, requested by supervisors at an earlier meeting. She reviewed the shelter’s temperament testing regimen for all dogs. The multi-component test determines, for example, a dog’s reaction when it is yelled at, stroked on the back or patted on the head.

After the presentation, Board Chairman Scott K. York (I) wasted little time revealing where he stood.

“I’m going to move that the Board of Supervisors direct the Department of Animal Care and Control to retain its current policies regarding pit bulls and pit bull mixes,” he said.

Supervisor James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) seconded the motion.

In a brief discussion before the vote was taken, some supervisors didn’t seem comfortable with sending pit bulls out into their communities.

“People do seem to have more of a fear of that type of dog due to the publicity,” Sarah R. “Sally” Kurtz (D-Catoctin) said.

Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run) noted that some dogs are high-strung while others are more sedate “because of their breed.”

Then Jim Clem (R-Leesburg) weighed in with a personal aside.

“While I’m not a lover of pit bulls,” he said, “I have to admit that in my walk over here a few minutes ago, I walked by one that actually was a pretty dog. Very pleasant. And I would bet money that dog has probably been spayed or neutered because that does have a tendency to calm one down.”

Loudoun began considering a new policy this year in response to a non-binding opinion by Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell that publicly funded shelters cannot legally euthanize dogs based solely on their breed.

A total of 80 pit bulls were brought to the shelter between May 1 and Nov. 30, according to a two-page handout the supervisors were given. Of those, 20 were returned to their owners, five were transferred to other shelters or rescue groups and 55 were euthanized. Thirty-eight of the 55 were euthanized because of behavioral issues.

The shelter’s 69 percent euthanasia rate for pit bulls compares with 23 percent for all other breeds of dog, according to the data.

Clem, Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles) and Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run) voted against the motion to keep the ban in place. They, along with Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac), were participating in their last board meeting. All were voted out of office in the Nov. 6 election.

Tagged: animals

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