More Stupid Dog Laws
Chuck emails this article on proposed dog legislation in Alabama. The long and short of the law is that if an owner’s dog goes onto someone else’s property, the owner is guilty of trespassing. I understand the desire to keep dogs (particularly hunting dogs) off your land but, as Chuck pointed out, dogs don’t grasp the concept of property the way humans do. You have to train dogs to respect property with physical barriers, such as keeping them in a fence, otherwise they will roam around and pee on things to expand their territory.
The law is meant to only be enforced if the owner of the property reports the incident but the law is not written that way. The legislation is unnecessary as, I would think, existing trespassing laws would suffice in the event a property owner wants you and your dogs off their land.
April 8th, 2004 at 10:30 am
That’s not stupid. Actually, it’s the only thing to protect the landowner, because Alabama can prosecute the landowner for cruelty if he does anything to get the dog off his land. My 6-month Bassett was on a leader in my front yard the other day and my neighbor’s Pit Bulldog got off his chain. He attacked my Bassett and I had to shoot the Pit. Now the Serriff’s Department is saying that I can be sentence to up to 10 years and $5000. THAT’s STUPID!