Sunday, March 14, 2010

Personal Family Problems Basis for Legislation? Regent, ND For the Fail

Regent, I love you! You are like the Gilmore Girls Star's Hollow, but meaner. Regent, North Dakota has a population of 200, and they made the news because of a really strange, almost comical family feud.

Patty Robbinson (or Robbins or Robinson!) does not like Pit Bulls. She likens them to loaded shotguns with a hair-pin trigger. Her daughter, Tammy, initially hates Pit Bulls too. So when Patty's grandson, David, purchased three Pit Bull puppies (all 4-weeks old, get them back to their mother stat), all hell broke loose. Patty went around town gathering signatures. She just had to do something about those three Pit Bull puppies. Unlike normal people who might sit down and talk with their grandchild, Patty decides the best route is to ban Pit Bulls entirely.

She gathers 42 signatures and presents them to the city council. Undoubtedly, another family member must have Rottweilers, so Patty includes those too. And get this, the city council takes her seriously! Instead of kindly directing her to family counseling, they actually mull over her proposal and have a serious debate about it. I love small towns!

Then, a new plot twist. Tammy, the mother, has three German Shepherds. They've bitten people before and routinely get loose. Other residents are all, hey! if we're going to ban 4-week-old Pit Bull puppies, we damn well better ban biting German Shepherds. Tammy reconsiders her initial hatred of Pit Bulls, "
Robinson said she signed her mother's petition to ban her own son's pit bulls from town, but now wishes she hadn't. Now that her dogs' future is in question, Robinson said she could support her son's pit bulls, "if he's willing to build a fence and take care of them. I'll muzzle my dogs if people are that afraid of them." Oh, how fickle we are, Tammy Rob(b)ins(on)... now that your precious, loose, biting dogs might get banned, you suddenly realize the error of your ways. It's an amazing about-face.

Then Tammy mentions this, "while several black Labradors have attacked at least one other dog and frightened a resident into running into his house."

Well, clearly there is something wrong with black Labs and they should be summarily given the boot from Regent. But 4-week-old Pit Bull puppies are far more dangerous, what with their teething ways and bottle-feeding needs. Loaded hair pin trigger shotgun thingies, they are.

I wonder what dinners are like at the Rob(b)ins(on) home are like these days!

The city council is going to hold off for a month before making a decision. That is ludicrous. Don't hold off, Regent. Please just tell Tammy and Patty and David to get some help and keep their personal family problems off the meeting agenda. Alternatively, they could just make an agenda item for this family. I feel a town of 200 needs to have some drama, and this may be it.

Just leave the damn dogs out of it.

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