In the end I must say longtime Mayor Ed Schock and the councilmen listened to their residents, as they promised they would - there will be no Pit Bull ban or restrictions on Pit Bulls in Elgin. I am glad to report as I suggested (and likely others), one solution to give police additional tools - that's to license all dogs.
I wasn't able to attend the meeting in Elgin tonight (I was at a shelter Board Meeting), but resident Lilah Lahalih offers this report, "The meeting tonight was a pleasant surprise. Standing room only, the council and Mayor decided to remove the Pit Bull clause, for now. Under the stipulation that NO more Pit Bull attacks occur. Unfortunately, we cannot stop the gangbangers and irresponsible thugs, but EVERYONE in that room tonight knows it will NOT betheir Pit Bull that attacks or that they will not exhibit irresponsibility with their dogs. I applaud the council for coming to this compromise. They do now want all dogs licensed. We welcome that. The mayor handled himself with class and dignity and so did the council members. I urge everyone to send them a thank you letter, email or phone call."
If you were at the meeting - do feel free to post a comment here, and describe your view of what went on.
I suggest Elgin officials pause and then create a task force of local experts to deal with companion animal issues.
Elgin officials on one hand should not have gone down this road in the first place, if they had done their homework. But I do thank them - by listening to residents, and perhaps other experts, they saved lives of dogs who didn't have to die. And kept at least some residents from moving out of Elgin. This story also illustrates how much our pets mean to us....I mean, if for some bizarre reason a city council somewhere wanted to ban Maine Coon cats, the response would have been as angry from residents with those cats. That's because pets really are treasured family members All dogs (and their people) in Elgin are smiling.
Filed under: dogs
Tags: breed ban, breed specific ban, BSL, Elgin proposed breed ban, Elgin's breed ban, Mayor Ed Schock, Steve Dale archives
That is GREAT news! Why punish an entire breed for the faults of a minority of owners who do not train their dogs properly. Congratulations to the Elgin mayor and board for doing what they were elected to do - work FOR the people, not AT them! And.. look at that smile above in the pic - what a great set of chomps!
while i consider this to be a resounding success on the part of everyone who worked so hard on this cause, we must all remind ourselves that the city council and mayor of elgin were open-minded and gracious in their willingness to hear our side, and we, in turn, need to be gracious, too. we now need to take a stand as responsible dog owners and prove to the city that our pets are what we claimed them to be, loving dogs no different than anyone elses. mayor and councilmen, i thank you, for your decsion.
As a resident and PB owner in Elgin, I can now breathe a sigh of relief. I no longer have to worry about the continually raising bar of PB ownership here, at least for the moment. I appreciate the willingness of Mayor Schock and the council members to listen, even if it took a lot of time and effort to get them to that point. It just proves that with patience, people (and their Bullies) can prevail. Thank you for speaking out, Steve.