BAN DOGS..

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

--- begin forwarded text


From: vinnie@vmeng.com
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:34:32 -0700
Subject:  BAN DOGS..
To: rah@shipwright.com, Tamzen Cannoy <tamzen@worldbenders.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3


LETTER TO BAN DOGS

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.



--------------289FF090CB8537C73A0A0B03--

--- end forwarded text


-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'