Ohio HB 55/HB 79 – Stop BSL in your Community!

It’s not typically my nature to post politically motivated content on my blog, but I want this post to serve as a call to action for those who read it. Ohio is currently the only state that has statewide legislation against an entire breed of dog, specifically – pit bulls. In the state of Ohio, all pit bulls (American Pit Bull Terrier) and related breeds (American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull terrier) are labeled as “vicious”, and are subject to all restrictions placed on dogs determined to be “vicious”. A dog of any breed can be labeled as vicious, but pit bulls are the only breed that are automatically labeled as vicious, regardless of a given dog’s actual temperament.

I could likely write a few pages on what BSL is, why it is not effective at increasing public safety, and why it in fact does more harm than good, but there are already a number of resources that feature this discussion. I recommend stopbsl.com, and this sub-page specifically for HB 55/79 related information. I would like to point out the most ironic aspect of BSL against pit bulls, however. That is, a higher percentage of pit bulls pass temperament related tests than many breeds considered to be safe, loving, and otherwise generally awesome family pets. The American Temperament Test Society conducts regular tests on many different breeds to determine the breeds’ level of aggression toward humans. In these tests, the American Pit Bull Terrier scored 86.0%. That is higher than the Beagle, the Collie, the Toy Poodle, and even the Golden Retriever, among many others! Find more information here.

So what is HB 55? It is a bill that is currently stuck in the Ohio Senate that, among other things, removes the automatic categorization of pit bulls as vicious. This bill passed the Ohio House in March by a vote of 93 to 3. But, if the bill does not pass in the Senate by the end of the legislative session this December, it will die. I need you to push your senator, as well as the Criminal Justice Committee, to hear this bill and vote to pass it. It only takes a simple email! This is an email I recently sent to the 9th district senator and the members of the Criminal Justice Committee:

Senator Kearny and the members of the Criminal Justice Committee,

My name is Kris Wong, and my wife and I are resident’s of Ohio’s 9^th district. As you may know, HB 55 passed in the house earlier this year with a vote of 93 to 3. This bill must now pass in the senate by the time the legislative session ends in December. This bill removes the automatic classification of the pit bull terrier breed of dog as “vicious”. As pit bull owners, we strongly urge you to hear this bill, and do what is in your power to see that this bill passes. I am sure that you can appreciate the fact that labeling an entire breed of dog as vicious is a misjudgment at the very least. Legislation that mandates this classification makes it easier for insurance companies to deny our household liability insurance, and only furthers negative attitudes towards pit bulls. Our dog is a very sweet and loyal animal, and has never shown aggression towards any person she has met. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Kris Wong

For your convenience, the following is a string of email addresses you can paste directly into your email client’s “To” field: ‘SD18@senate.state.oh.us’; ‘SD16@senate.state.oh.us’; ‘SD25@maild.sen.state.oh.us’; ‘SD12@senate.state.oh.us’; ‘SD03@senate.state.oh.us’; ‘SD33@maild.sen.state.oh.us’; ‘SD21@maild.sen.state.oh.us’; ‘SD08@senate.state.oh.us’; ‘SD20@senate.state.oh.us’. These are the email addresses of Criminal Justice Committee. You can find your own Senator’s email address here: http://www.ohiosenate.gov. If Senator Kearny happens to be your senator, his email address is: ‘SD09@maild.sen.state.oh.us’. Please, take 5 minutes out of your day to send these individuals an email.

This post is dedicated to Oceana.

A Tale Of Two Dwellings

Where o where have I been for the last 6 months?! I know you’re dieing to know. Well, for your information, I have been quite busy. The first few months of this year were spent furiously developing the latest version of TestTrack, TestTrack 2010, which boasts our brand spankin new requirements management tool – TestTrack RM. This latest version has been receiving tons of positive feedback, and is set to release very soon. Many a night and weekend hour where required to bring this version to fruition.

In addition to that, my wonderful fiance (yep, she received a title change since my last post) and I have been attempting to purchase our first home. We had the fantastic idea to by a foreclosed property in need of some TLC – for the potential to build up some serious sweat equity relatively quickly. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

(This is the part on TV where the show fades into a scene from some character’s recent memory.)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

The owner of the property was none other than the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, a.k.a. Freddie Mac. This was just one of many foreclosed properties that had contributed in driving the company to the brink of collapse, only to be subsequently seized by the government. The previous occupants of the home had been removed around 6 months earlier, and by this time the price had been significantly reduced. Of course, the house needed quite a bit of work. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with a bank when purchasing a home, but it can be quite a frustrating experience. The most important thing you need to know when dealing with a bank is, banks do not react quickly in any situation. Much of the time spent in the negotiation process will be dedicated to you waiting for the bank to respond. Fortunately, the bank responded to our initial offer in only a few days – sometimes this can take months. But that, of course, was only the beginning.

The entire negotiation and closing process took almost 3 months. Most of the negotiations were the result of a mold problem that was discovered during our initial inspection. Mold – it’s nasty stuff. Fortunately we were able to get the bank to come down on the price by the amount of the estimate to fix this mold issue. This required us to be very persistent. We finally closed on the house around 1 month ago.

Since we closed, we have been working diligently to get the house into condition for us to move in – which we did this past Sunday. All new paint, floors, appliances, bathroom fixtures, counter tops, refinishing the kitchen cabinets, the list goes on. Things are coming along, but there is still a lot of work left to be done. Trying to remodel a house in your spare time is a long process. At least we are no longer traveling back and forth between our apartment and the house every day.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a link to a Picasa web album of the “before” pics. The “after” pics will hopefully make their way to the web within the next 2 – 3 months. I keep telling myself, it will all be worth it at the end of the day. I just wish the end of the day would finally get here.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

OK, so maybe he’s not so little…

His name is Emmitt.  He is a 2 year old Mastiff/Rottweiler (we think) mix my wonderful girlfriend and I adopted from the Humane Association of Warren County this past weekend.  He’s a big baby.  He probably weighs about 80 lbs, but he is pretty calm and loving.

This is a whole new level of responsibilty for me.  I’ll be spending my time in the immediate future adjusting to owning and taking care of another living thing (that isn’t a plant).  We’re hoping we can provide a good home for him, as busy as we both are.