Students at Missouri State recently contributed to the freedom of pit bulls in Springfield.
In the Aug. 7 primary election, about 68 percent of Springfield voters voted no on Question One, which asked if the city should ban new pit bulls in city limits.
With the help of the Animal Rights Club at MSU, the Breed Specific Legislation was rejected.
Amber McBride was in the Animal Rights Club before she graduated in May 2018.
She is a founder of Citizens Against BSL and went to school with her service dog, an American pit bull. McBride says she attended city council meetings with Citizens Against BSL and spoke out against the legislation.
When the council decided they wanted to pass the legislation amid the backlash, McBride said animal rights activists and clubs used the referendum petition process to halt the legislation. This process requires a petition that needs a specific number of signatures, then that petition is presented to the court who then can vote whether or not they want to change legislation.
Kathleen Larkin, instructor of finance and general business at Missouri State, said their petition needed about 2,200 signatures. Instead, they collected almost four times the required amount, gathering over 8,000 signatures to put a pause on the ban.
“The petition was to get city council to reverse itself,” Larkin said. “In lieu of that, if they didn’t, the way the law is written is that you would have to put it on to a public vote.”
When the Animal Rights Club presented their petition to the council, the council decided to keep the ban by a 5-4 vote, forcing it to a public vote on Aug. 7.
“In the interim, we really started big educational programs to try to get people to understand first of all what a ‘pit bull type’ dog means,” Larkin said. “Secondly, what Breed Specific Legislation means, what it does and what it doesn’t do.”
Larkin said they showed people the research they had done on BSL and how it affected other cities. She said there is not a direct correlation between dog bites and a specific breed, but it depends on how the dog is raised and if it interacts with humans regularly.
McBride said volunteers canvassed neighborhoods, raised funds and spread the word on why this legislation was a bad idea.
“Every time this went to a public vote, it lost by a landslide, but through public education canvassing and our amazing community we were able to defeat the ban,” McBride said.
When it came time for Springfield and Greene County area to vote on the ban, of the 30,000 people who voted, over 21,000 voted against BSL.
Sophomore cell and molecular biology major Olivia Apperson has owned a pit bull for three years.
Apperson said the ban didn’t affect her and her dog Willow too much because they lived outside city limits, but there were many difficulties.
“Most of the vets in town refused to see pits, and we could not take her places,” Apperson said. “Even without the ban there is still a variety of places who do not let pits in.”
When the ban was in place, Apperson could not let Willow out of the house without serious consequences.
“She could not leave the house, and if she got out, the city could have taken her and put her down,” Apperson said.
Breed Specific Legislation has controlled the dogs and dog owners of Springfield since 2006. This legislation required pit bull owners to sterilize their dogs, keep them confined and post pit bull signs.
Owners also could not own or sell a pit bull unless it came from an animal shelter or dog show, according to the Springfield, Missouri Code of Ordinances.
Although pit bull owners still have to register, fix and chip their dogs, they are now welcome in the community.
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