To send the following letter to the Aurora, Colorado city council, just fill in your email address at the end, and click Send Now. 

I’m a supporter for a national, non-profit dog attack victim’s group dedicated to reducing serious dog attacks and supporting victims – National Pit Bull Victim Awareness.

I’m writing to ask you to please keep Aurora’s pit bull ban.

Outside of Aurora, doctors are calling pit bulls a “public health crisis.” See this page for a quick overview of just how wide-ranging and devastating the scope of pit bull attacks has now become. https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/attacks/pit-bull-attack-database-keywords

It is not an accident that pit bull restrictions are challenged. Cities and towns face heated challenges instigated by people sympathetic to the pit bull lobby [https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/pit-bull-lobby/], which spends tens of millions of dollars disputing both local bans and enforcing bills at the House level to prevent BSL state-wide [ https://www.dogsbite.org/legislating-dangerous-dogs-bsl-faq.php#statepreemption ].

The purpose of a breed specific ordinance is not to prevent bites, but to prevent maulings. Bites require band-aids or a few stitches; maulings require amputation, plastic surgery, and rehabilitation therapy. On average, 30 people are directly killed every year by pit bulls. Hundreds more people die of related causes such as falling downstairs to escape an attack, having a heart attack during the mauling, or being hit by a car escaping an attack, and thousands upon thousands are hospitalized for emergency surgery. Reconstructive surgery with skin grafts, tissue expansion, and scar diminishment often requires multiple procedures over a period of year – with the victims bearing the medical costs.

Pit bulls make up 7% of the dog population but inflict 72% of dog bite-related human fatalities [ https://blog.dogsbite.org/2019/05/2018-dog-bite-fatality-statistics-discussion.html ]. Anyone who understands statistics knows this is enough proof that they are dangerous in our neighborhoods. Most insurers don’t cover pit bulls because they can’t afford the actuarial risk. In Colorado, there have been over 50 serious attacks and maulings in the past three years alone [ https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/attacks/pit-bull-attack-database-keywords ]

Twenty-four articles recently published in refereed medical journals conclude pit bulls pose the highest risk of biting, cause the most damage per bite, and the most deaths by dogs. Some of these studies examine thousands of hospital cases. [ https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/articles/medical-studies-on-pit-bulls/ ] In addition, Level 1 trauma center dog bite studies from all geographical regions in the U.S. are reporting a higher prevalence of injuries from pit bulls than all other breeds of dogs, a higher severity of injury, and require a greater number of operative interventions. [ https://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-studies-level-1-trauma-table-2011-present.php ]

This video gives a short overview of what doctors are now saying about pit bulls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1eKhrSAac. Remember: the people pressing you for the return of pit bulls to Aurora make money off them, and do not swear any oath to protect public health and safety. Medical doctors do swear an oath. Who are you going to trust?

Medical studies recommend parents keep their children away from pit bulls and dogs built like pit bulls. I feel it is critically important that cities keep or enact actual bans since we live in communities and accidents happen. Many children are attacked in their own yard, at playgrounds or at school grounds. Please see maps of attacks reported by the media for the past 5 years for the extensive number and nature of pit bull attacks and deaths in the community. [ https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/attacks/map-of-attacks-2020/ ]

Supporting breed specific legislation (BSL) not only increases public safety but decreases pit bull breeding and the number of pit bulls being euthanized at shelters. BSL also cuts down on the transport and re-homing of dangerous pit bulls between states from No Kill shelters, which are desperate to reduce their numbers.

There are 1,160 cities in the USA and 50 countries outside the USA that enact breed specific ordinances because pit bull type-dogs present an unreasonable risk to health and public safety. [ https://www.scribd.com/doc/56495216/Estimated-U-S-Cities-Counties-States-and-Military-Facilities-with-Breed-Specific-Pit-Bull-Laws ]

I hope you will consider these facts when considering restrictions for this kind of dog in your community.