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Pit bull advocates gathered at a Golden park on a windy fall Saturday to argue against breed-specific legislation.

Pointing primarily to the ban on pit bulls in Denver Ń which has resulted in more than 3,000 dogs killed by the city Ń the small group of advocates held signs and wore T-shirts this weekend while standing on the outskirts of Parfet Park.

“They just get such a bad rap, it really is owner-specific,” said event organizer Laura Hagan while holding her 8-month-old pit-mix Lilly. “Any dog that is chained and neglected is going to be mean; heck, you would be right now if you were. They just need to change legislation and the mindset. I mean, 100 years ago pit bulls were America’s No. 1 breed.”

The ban on pit bulls in Denver has existed since 1989. The city stopped enforcing the law in 2004 when Gov. Bill Owens signed a bill prohibiting local municipalities from enacting breed-specific legislation. Denver challenged the statute and enforcement resumed in May 2005. Since then more than 2,000 pit bulls have been killed.

The Denver Daily News has repeatedly asked city officials if the ban has made the city safer. But because pit bull bites remain relatively stagnant and it is unknown whether there is any less of the breed in the city since the ban took effect, officials are unable to say that the ordinance is working.

The law has come under intense scrutiny lately after an administrative judge ruled that animal control officers wrongly labeled a boxer-mix as a pit bull. Three so-called experts with Denver Animal Care and Control had labeled Kevin O’Connell’s dog Dexter a pit bull. But O’Connell’s own experts Ń American Kennel Club judges and professional dog handlers Ń testified that Dexter was in no way a pit bull.

Advocates are now wondering how many innocent dogs the city has killed by wrongly labeling a dog believed to be a pit bull.

Attorneys with the Wheat Ridge-based Animal Law Center are looking into legal options to ensure that the city does not kill innocent dogs. Also, a separate lawsuit filed by three former Denver residents seeks to overturn the ban.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Carla Madison is working on a bill that would allow pit bulls in the city if owners obtain a permit for the dog, which would include having to pay fees, obtaining extra insurance and putting the dog through temperament testing. Madison Ń who describes herself as a “dog lover” Ń said the bill would not be an outright repeal, but an alternative. She has no support yet from the rest of her colleagues, and the bill likely won’t make its way to Council for full consideration.

Councilman Charlie Brown told the Denver Daily that he is actively opposing the proposal. He believes that unlike other dogs, when pit bulls attack they are lethal weapons, latching on and mauling their victims. He points to the 1989 mauling of Rev. Wilbur Billingsley, who was left with more than 70 bites and two broken legs.

“I wish these (advocates) would visit some of these victims lying in hospital beds trying to recover from pit bull attacks,” says Brown.

But Melissa Triester believes education should be the approach, not breed-specific legislation. At the rally Saturday Ń surrounded by signs like “Stop killing our dogs” Ń she spoke of bringing a Humane Society campaign to Colorado that aims at stopping urban dogfighting Ń where the majority of dogfighting takes place.

The End Dogfighting program is currently being tested in Chicago. It includes education, community outreach and law enforcement partnerships, to name a few.

“The solution is within the community,” said Triester, who owns a 7-year-old pit bull named Ginger. “We need to help better educate the people who are into street fighting.”

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