(Newswire.net — November 24, 2014) — Moreauville, La. – The petition, which asks the village of Moreauville to reverse a “vicious dog” ban against pit bulls and rottweilers, has drawn nearly 40,000 signatures as Joanna Armand started a fight for a life of her daughters ‘best friend’, CNN reported.
Joana’s daughter O’Hara, who suffers from severe neck problems and uses a Halo brace and a wheelchair, said to reporters that the faith of her pit bull Zeus, will be the same as her own.
“If anything ever happened to him, I would just shut down,” O’Hara told KALB.
Joana told CNN that Zeus acts as a sort of therapy dog for O’Hara because he sleeps with her and barks if she wakes up with seizures.
Joana told CNN that when she asked local officials to consider the special circumstances, they replied there is nothing they can do.
One of creators of the ban, a city council member Penn Lemoine, told KALB that several residents were complaining about not being able to walk along the neighborhoods because “these dogs were basically running along town.”
So, because ‘some’ residents were complaining, alderman and mayor of Moreauville issued ban of rottweilers and pit bulls, and send letters to owners saying that pets found within the corporate limits of Moreauville after December 1, will be “impounded and transported to a veterinary clinic for further disposition.”
Moreauville, however, is not the first to ban pit bulls, rottweilers or other so-called ‘vicious dogs,’ even though the White House stated that “research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources.”
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said that the law should focus on the owners, not on the breed.
After all, pit bulls are not a breed of dog. According to the ASPCA, the Bull Terrier, the Bull dog and the American Staffordshire Terrier, commonly referred to as ‘pit bulls’, descended from an English bull-baiting dog bred to bite and hold bulls, bears and other large animals around the face and head.
They were later bred with terriers to produce a more agile, athletic type dog, said the ASPCA.
Meanwhile, Armand family is desperate because they are going to lose a dear ‘family member’, because of how some residence feel about pit bulls and rottweilers.
The mayor and council member of Moreauville did not respond to CNN’s repeated requests for comment.