*CROSSPOST*
About 40 people attended the open session, with 10 or so speaking against BSL and three speaking for it. The police chief then addressed the Council with the information that he and his staff had gathered. The chief did a great job stating the facts on statistics, current ordinances, and studies relating to BSL in other towns.
The council then addressed the chief, city attorney, the humane society and animal control with questions about what the stat's really showed, the current ordinances, education, and animal licensing. In the end it was unanimous that BSL would not be the best option for Longmont. The Council stated that it was more important that the current ordinances are enforced and that the attention should be placed on ways to increase the number of licensed pets. A committee of local vets will be formed to come up with ways to improve licensing and education – a group of vets had volunteered at an earlier meeting.
The council said that they based their decision not on the views of the citizens since the views were greatly based on emotion and each persons own experience; instead their decision was based of the facts presented by unbiased groups such as the police chiefs report, the humane society, the kennel club and other agencies.
I hope other communities can learn from the Longmont Council - thank you to those who sent letters to the Council.
) Now to reverse the Denver/Aurora rulings....