Victory! Cumberland County Animal Control Backs Off Controversial Proposal

by Pulin Modi · 2011-12-07 21:06:00 UTC
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The Cumberland County Animal Control Board in North Carolina recently weighed a proposal to ban adoptions of purebred, mixed-breed, or look-alikes of any American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler, Chows, Presa Canario, or Pit Bull.

Hundreds of miles away in Iowa, Christine Salek heard about this proposal and knew she had to take action to put a sensible policy in place. She created her own petition at Change.org on a Friday and, by the following Monday, more than 60,000 animal advocates from around the world contacted officials in Cumberland County to demand that this proposal be dropped. Moreover, 100 dog defenders also filled the room at the Board's meeting to speak out against the  proposal, creating quite some buzz.

The result? Cumberland County Animal Control decided to scrap its original proposal in favor of better background checks for those looking to adopt out these breeds. The media was all over it with stories ranging from The Fayetteville Observer to the local NBC affiliate. Christine says, "Even though I'm out here in Iowa, I felt it was a problem that everyone needed to hear about, and it seems like that was justified since there were so many international responses!"

She added, "I was so surprised at the response to the petition! When I created it, it was just as a knee-jerk response to seeing the initial report on the proposal. I already knew Change.org was an incredible way to effect change for any and all issues, so I immediately visited the site and created the petition."

Thanks to Christine, tens of thousands of people around the world were able to support Cumberland County animal lovers to give dogs a chance in their community. If there's something you'd like to change in your community, you can start your own petition on Change.org.

Editor's note: The list of breeds for the proposal did not include Akitas, Dobermans, German Shepherds, Great Danes, Siberian Huskies or Mastiffs as originally reported, so they have been removed from the post.

Photo credit: Hotash

Pulin Modi

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