Bad Law: HB-14

Ohio is one of the very few States that discriminate against a particular breed of dog, namely the American Pit Bull Terrier. As usual, when legislators decide they know anything, they get it dead wrong.  If any dog breed were to be singled out for legislation (and I do not support the idea of doing so at all), the legislators might have selected the Presa Canario. Instead, the idiots in Columbus succumbed to media pressure and passed a law against pit bulls.  That was about 25 years ago and we've been living with their stupidity ever since.

Ohio State Representative Barbara Sears decided to fix this problem, which is a laudable pursuit.  As a result of her efforts House Bill 14 was introduced for the express purpose of removing any and all references to pit bulls.  Here's a link to H.B. 14 as it was originally introduced.  Note that there are minor changes at lines 13, 14, 69 and 70 with the major change being the removal of lines 35 through 38.  Easy, right?  The citizens of Ohio get rid of a worthless, noisome law and we can all get on with our lives.

Then the Moonbats got hold of it.  These incredibly stupid elected officials rewrote the whole thing with malicious aforethought and, I swear, the help of the evil one himself.  Here's the revised version of H.B. 14, completely FUBAR.  Check section 955.08 and note the fee went from $0.25 to $5.00.  They did everyone a favor there, right?  Then in section 955.11 they make it a point to define a dangerous dog as a dog that has "Been the subject of a third violation of division (C) of section 955.22 of the Revised Code."  Moving to section 955.22 we find that:

(C) Except when a dog is lawfully engaged in hunting and accompanied by the owner, keeper, harborer, or handler of the dog, no owner, keeper, or harborer of any dog shall fail at any time to do either of the following:
(1) Keep the dog physically confined or restrained upon the premises of the owner, keeper, or harborer by a leash, tether, adequate fence, supervision, or secure enclosure to prevent escape;
(2) Keep the dog under the reasonable control of some person.

The emphasis is mine.  In plain speech, if I live out in the country, out in rural Ohio on a farm and my nearest neighbor is five miles away by ATV, four and a half by foot and eight by farm tractor I must keep Hector on a leash.  If I violate the law three times old Hector is now a dangerous dog, despite the fact that Hector is a ten year old basset hound and actually can't bite anyone.

This is only one item that's wrong with H.B. 14, but it's not an insignificant item.  This law was written by a group of Moonbats who can't sleep nights knowing that some portion of the population might be free.  Free, as in free to do as they please without Draconian law written by someone who can only be described as mean spirited.

This is a prime example of bad law, and it didn't have to be this way.