Wolfe's Lodge - Friends

LETTER TO BAN DOGS

By Tina Terry

To the Editor
Arizona Republic
P.O. Box 2244
Phoenix, Arizona 85002

January 7th, 1998

Dear Editor,

I am gratified to read in this morning's paper that someone has finally called attention to an urgent situation which I have known about for a long time: annually 334,000 victims of savage dog bites, most frequently children, average age 15, are taken to the nation's emergency rooms. As the article states: "That's more ER visits than injuries from skateboards, baby walkers and in-line skates combined." Total annual cost of ER dog bites: $102.4 million. Twenty or more people killed annually by dogs, almost all of them children.

Because these dogs are so readily obtainable on the streets of our nation, I implore all your readers to immediately deluge their Congressmen with letters, phone calls, faxes and telegrams to support the federal "Save the Widdle Childwen Fwom the Vicious Dog-Bite Act of 1998", which would require the following: mandatory muzzles fitted with muzzle-locks to be kept at all times on all dogs, licensing and paw-printing of all dogs, fingerprinting and house-monitoring of dog owners, including mandatory, federally-monitored safe storage of dogs and an immediate 1,000% tax on all dog food. This Act is sponsored by Canine Control Incorporated, an organization dedicated to eliminating canine violence in America by the year 2000. The Act also provides for the immediate banning of all "assault dogs", the definition of which term will constantly change according to the emotions of the board of C.C.I. "Saturday Night Special" dogs, such as Chihuahuas and other cheap, easily concealed ankle-biters, will also be banned. In addition, the Act bans all sharp canine teeth, all canine teeth longer than a federally-mandated length, all spiked collars and sharp canine toenails. It also mandates that all dogs be transferred only through federally licensed dog dealers, and provides for the changing of the BATF to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Assault Dogs, or BATFAD.

I hope that the physicians' organizations who champion total hand-gun banning will rally behind this urgent cause to save our nation's children. Anyone who opposes this type of legislation obviously hates children. We need this Act desperately - after all, if it saves only one life, it is worth it. Not to mention the $102.4 million dollars in ER charges!

My husband's face was horribly mauled at the age of four by a Pit Bull; today he is the poster child for C.C.I. Now, when not being used as a drooling doorstop or for first base, he is routinely wheeled out at charity fund-raising events at which he repeatedly mumbles, "Bad dogs! Ban dogs!"

We urgently need your help to get these vicious dogs off the streets now! Please help end canine violence in America! Send donations to: C.C.I., 1111 B.S. Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004.

Make the checks out to me.

Tina Terry

(c) 1998 by Tina Terry. This letter may be reprinted in its entirety, as long as nothing in it is changed, credit is given the author, and the following is included. Author's note: The author's husband's face really was mauled at age 4 by a Pit Bull, an incident in which he almost lost an eye. He's not in a wheelchair, true, but he also doesn't blame dogs in general for his early experience and he loves and owns dogs to this day. He also has never tried to enlist the author to run around the country trying to ban all dogs.

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13 August, 1998