A Dog Fight

Today the Assembly took up SB 861, a semi-controversial dog bill that would authorize local governments to enact dog-breed specific ordinances that pertain to spaying and neutering programs. Whether it is said expressly in the bill or not (it’s not)—the aim of the measure is to give local governments some leeway to deal with the issue of aggressive pit bulls. So when conservative Republican Assemblyman Tim Leslie rose, I assumed that he would be in opposition. But he surprised me, and most of the crowd, when he said the bill doesn’t go far enough. “String them all up and send them to some other state,” Leslie rebuked his colleagues. But the entire Republican caucus was hardly in agreement. Audra Strickland rose in opposition, saying that California should focus on errant dog owners instead of errant dogs. “Spay and neuter those owners who abuse their dogs,” she announced. Unfortunately, her argument went for naught. The Assembly passed the measure.