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The NYC Housing Authority has prohibited pit bulls from all the housing projects it administers, and placed a new weight restriction on all pets, requiring them to weigh no more than 25 pounds. (Previously, and according to the NYCHA website, the limit was 40 pounds. Here's a pdf outlining the new rules.) 24 other breeds, including Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers are also banned, but residents who already own any of the proscribed pets can keep them as long as they register the animal before Friday. Queens Councilman Peter Vallone praised the ban, telling the Daily News, "Finally someone is realizing that these potentially dangerous animals have no place in a confined urban space." Of course not everyone is pleased; Anthony Nieves, who was walking his 1-year-old pit bull, Storm, near his home at the Wald Houses, says, "It all depends on how you teach a dog. My dog is like a puppy." And the ASPCA's advocacy rep explains that the group opposes both the breed-specific ban and the weight restriction because "so many breeds are over 25 pounds. You can get an overweight beagle that weighs more than 25 pounds."
Pit Bulls Now Banned from NYC Housing Projects
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This is great news for the projects' oft-overlooked burglar community.
could you find a worse picture to use? sheeesh.
that dog has Satan deep inside. I remember seeing a dog lying on bench late night out my window when living in Brooklyn City Housing. He had been shot by a Cop.
This also might alleviate some cruelty to animals. Not long ago, I witnessed some kids beating a pit bull puppy. When I confronted them, they said, "we're trying to make him mean."
Why don't they ban gangbanging and drug dealing in the projects?
Why don't they just ban the projects altogther?
Seriously, Gothamist. How about you try a little harder to perpetuate stereotypes here? At least the Daily News, of all publications, had the decency to use a neutral picture.
I'm not completely against this, though, as I'm not sure why the NYHA is pet-friendly in the first place. I pay 100% of my rent and have a hard time finding a place that's pet-friendly (for my two healthy, well-trained pit mixes).
Real dogs start at 45 pounds. How could they lower the upper limit of pets to 25 pounds.
OK so now I'm going with a Bobcat and starve it so he will hit the scales at the 24 pound level. That should deter other drug dealers in my building for a while.
Are scorpions allowed? Wow 25 pounds of scorpions could do some serious damage. Bring on the pit bulls.
As a taxpayer who subsidizes public housing, I think it's a great idea. I am all for having reasonable pets, but seriously, if you can't afford your own housing, how can you afford to feed and house a big dog?
"how can you afford to feed and house a big dog?" Easy. Since you are not paying but spit for the place where you live in with the dog the cost is zero. And with food stamps and a little manipulation you don't pay squat for the dog food.
this ban is racist against pit bulls and urban-americans.
Look at the list of dog breeds that are included in the ban and you will realize that there are a lot of idiots making up the rules in this city.
If anything they should eliminate all those little "tea cup" dog breeds that are smaller than your average cat. And the people that stuff them in their handbags and bring them into restaurants and have their equally shallow friends go ohh and ahh over them.
I am in complete agreement. The only purpose the "tea cup" dogs serve is as a football.
you are just as racist in believing in that statement.
this is so they cut down on the dogfighting. And these animals can only be "potentially dangerous" if their owners train/let them be that way.
If you are a responsible human being and properly train your dog, no matter what the breed is, they would not be dangerous.
I blame the humans not the animal.
Esp those fuckin morons who are involved w/ dogfighting. Someone should unleash those dogs onto them and gauge their eyes out. A dose of their own medicine. Karma.
right...cuz dog fighting is only organized by people from the projects. who's racist?
I used to think exactly the same way you did Jo. I believed that dog owners were solely responsible for their dog's behavior and that you could train and socialize ANY dog to be friendly and non-aggressive. I learned, through personal experience, that this isn't true. I was the sole owner of an akita puppy from a well known, well respected breeder whom I knew personally. I was involved in the dog's life since birth and took it home at 8 weeks of age. I've owned many dogs before my akita puppy (other akitas included), so I was well versed in the importance of training and socialization and did everything a responsible owner should do to give the puppy a solid foundation to be a friendly, well-behaved animal. Even though I did all of the aforementioned things, at three months of age my akita started to show signs of aggression. It was mild at first and I corrected the behavior through various methods of training (all approved by any responsible breeder, vet or trainer and even had a visit from Ceasar Milan) but regardless of what I did his aggression grew stronger. Eventually my beloved dog began attacking other dogs without provocation and eventually attacked me. My point is that dogs, much like people, have personalities and may have certain tendencies based on centuries of breeding and bloodlines. Although training and exposure can lessen the chance that a dog will be aggressive, it doesn't eliminate it.
Wow canine profiling is OK, but we can't offend the terrorists with little criminal profiling of arabs!
Keeping Dogs in the city is stupid anyway.
The issue is not the dog...it is the owners and how they treat the dog. Ban the owners from NYC. More good will come of that.
I know a person who worked in the movie industry who became a housing cop. the first thing he asks a tenant is Do you have a dog inside? they consider them a threat.
anyone seen that picture of the child who's face got all ripped up by a pit bull and needed a thousand stitches?
Why not use this photo?
http://xrlq.com/Images/pitbaby2.jpg
or this one?
http://tinyurl.com/cybx5u
Why not use this photo?
http://xrlq.com/Images/pitbaby2.jpg
or this one?
http://tinyurl.com/cybx5u
Why not use this photo?
http://xrlq.com/Images/pitbaby2.jpg
or this one?
http://tinyurl.com/cybx5u
Rottweilers are very nice dogs and so are pit bulls, but the thing is that it is the humans that own them that cause the problems. Don't blame the dogs because some humans are idiots.
Agreed. Show me a nasty pit bull and I'll show you a shitty human.
That's absolutely true. A pet who is loved and cared for will return the favor tenfold. Any breed.
This will be devastating news for residents of the Michael Vick Homes.
Pits get such a bad rap...I've known so many sweet pits
Another sweet and gentle Pit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomische/152466088/
This ban makes plenty of sense! How the hell does someone in a housing project have the ability to support a pet anyway? If a person has enough free time to take care of a dog, then that person has enough time and will to go get a job to get out of the housing project!
I know right?! And while we're at it let's ban them from having cable! No, wait! No TVs at all! Poor people should not be able to spend any money on anything that we don't tell them they can!
Just because someone lives in a project does not mean they don't have a job. On the contrary, they're still having to pay rent, even if it is lower than yours and mine. How could they live there if they had no income at all?
onevalianteffort got owned.
Hardly! the boy is comparing cable and a pet? When's the last time you had to walk your cable box?
You go right ahead and write a check to a resident of a housing project to help support their "way of life."
The point is that they have to prove a certain level of income, or rather lack there of, to gain access to project housing.
That doesn't give you the right to dictate what they can or cannot spend the remainder of their meager income on.
If you're not happy with the way the government handles project housing then vote for someone who sees things your way.
I hear tell there's a hot young member of the totalitarian fascist douche bags party on the rise.
I think we're getting away from the real issue here:
Anytime a person rents an apartment, they have to follow the rules of the owner, which in this case is the NY housing authority. If the owner of a property wants to ban any or all breeds of dogs, its said owner's right. If the tenant doesn't like it, they can live elsewhere.
I pay market rate for my apartment, and no pets of any kind are allowed. Is this "middle class discrimination"? Can I make the argument that my landlord is dictating what I can and cannot spend my not-so "meager" income on ? Of course, thats retarded - I can find myself a new place to live, or I can accept that we sometimes make compromises in life.
They say you get what you pay for, but anyone relying on public assistance long term actually gets a lot of stuff that they are NOT paying for.
You don't like it, figure something else out, and shut up !
Fucking brilliant point FalujahBaker, thank you (seriously).
@onevalianteffort, lots of poor people living in public housing also rely on food stamps (job or not). Food stamps do not allow the purchase of booze and cigarettes, but since you seem to not like it when poor people are told what they can't do with their government subsidies, I think you might find your calling in lobbying the federal government to permit the purchase of anything a food stamp recipient damn well pleases. Good luck!
I don't understand the outrage over this. Owning a dog is a luxury, not a right. If you're living in public housing, you are receiving financial assistance from the hard working citizens of this city. Your focus should be on your necessities.
If it take banning pit bulls as well as other pets to keep the residents of the rest of the housing projects safe, then so be it. There have obviously been incidents that has caused only a ban in housing projects. No?
go on and stand by your foolish comment. meanwhile i will point out that not all people in the projects are unemployed, there are plenty of people that own pets who also have time to work, and you forgot to take your pills.
No worries, I took my pills. These allergies are killing me!
I wouldn't say foolish but probably a bit heated. There is a reason a ban came up. There were some incidents that where a pit bull went on attack and it was the irresponsible owners fault. Sadly there will always a certain few that will ruin it for everyone else and instead of educating, it would just be easier to place a ban, right?
No worries, I took my pills. These allergies are killing me!
I wouldn't say foolish but probably a bit heated. There is a reason a ban came up. There were some incidents that where a pit bull went on attack and it was the irresponsible owners fault. Sadly there will always a certain few that will ruin it for everyone else and instead of educating, it would just be easier to place a ban, right?
There are so many problems with public housing residents, this is a good, if small, first step. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to have pets at all. Or cable tv, certainly not PPV events! I agree that their first priority should be getting a legit job (not drug dealing) that raises them out of poverty. I would be embarassed to live in welfare housing, these people treat it like its their right, what a disgrace!
Banning a breed is never the answer; you're damning a whole bunch of animals that do not deserve it. it's the a-hole people. They would just find a new breed of dog to make vicious.
Yeah, as soon as you ban the pitbulls the thugs will just pick another breed. Then you'll have to ban that one too. Eventually you'll end up banning chihuahuas because they are a "bad breed".
I can't afford a dog, but people in public housing can? What are my tax dollars going towards in terms of helping people in public housing?
BAN pets from housing projects! Then no need to pick and choose what animals have more rights than others!
Despite how good or bad dog owners are, some breeds are just that: BRED for a specific behavior over hundreds of years. There are exceptions that prove the rule, but don't think good training will always beat genetics.
Thanks Gothamist for using a picture that propagates incorrect stereotypes about the Pit Bull breeds.
And to AngryGod, the Pit breeds were bred to fight other animals and dogs but to be completely loyal and gentle to humans. Little terriers are far more dangerous because they were bred to kill anything that moves.
Very unlikely to be enforced and there's the whole issue of the dog owner saying "its not a pitbull but a mixed-breed, now prove that its a pitbull"
Hence the weight restriction on top of that.
Misleading title - it doesn't sound like pit bulls specifically were banned, just pets over a certain weight.
sounds like race baiting to me.
Actually, it sounds like you didn't read the new NYCHA pet rules linked above.
pwned
I pity for the pit bulls I see on every corner of NYCPH. The largely uneducated and often unemployed owners created this problem by training these poor animals to be viscious, all so they can puff up their wannabe thug egos. You cant afford your own rent, but you can spend our tax dollars any which way you please? Disgusting.
What's with all the 'spending our tax dollars' comments? They don't get money from the government, they just get their housing subsidized. It's not like they're getting a check cut to spend on whatever they want.
The list included as many breeds of dogs as possible that were bred for the purpose of dog-fighting, some quite exotic. But.. boston terriers... really? they are hyper and neurotic but not vicious! Unfortunately they type of people who are the real cause for the ban will find a way to turn any dog vicious. Pit bulls that aren't damaged by cruel owners are very sweet, so are rottweilers!!!
B'town Terriers are on the list because someone at the NYCHA hates the Red Sox. There's no other explanation!
there is no way to curb human stupidity that ends in violence, so law was born.
Perhaps another solution to the problem would be limiting the total weight of the individuals that live in a specific unit of a housing project. Limit the weight to 1200 pounds. That will eliminate about three sisters and a mother plus her mother.
LEAVE THE CANINES OUT OF THIS DISCUSSION!
The dogs are not the issue, it is that the people that inhabit the projects are for the most part, system manipulating filth who abuse them and turn them into attack dogs. I say this as I view the lovely Martin Luther King Projects from my window and pray they catch on fire.
"the people that inhabit the projects are for the most part, system manipulating filth" Now, now, isn't that a bit too harsh?
But then again I admire your ability to see the truth.
john i picture that is what you look like when you tear into a flesh sandwich as you think of witty and obnoxious comments to use in your postings.
I agree that the photo of the pitbull used for this article is disappointing. The ban on specific dog breeds in public housing reflects the narrow-minded thinking of the beauracrats at the Housing Authority. However, I expect more from the people at the Gothamist. For everyone who thinks breed bans are a good idea, consider if you would like to be judged solely on the basis of your looks or heredity. Most dogs are fine, some dogs are not. If you think you can distinguish between the two based on the breed of the dog is arrogant and ignorant.
Pit bulls hate our freedom. End of discussion.
All dogs--and especially pitbulls--should be walked twice a day for a minimum of 30 minutes each time. Pitbull puppies should be walked twice a day for a minimum of one hour each time. All dogs should be trained in basic commands and given a chance to get physical and mental exercise, and proper socialization with both people and other dogs EVERY DAY.
Is all this activity time consuming? Absolutely. Is it realistic? Um, I don't know--if you decided to be a dog owner anywhere, including an urban area, it better be, or you will be choosing to own a dog who is not getting what it needs to be healthy and calm.
More education about properly caring for pitbulls might help keep them from getting banned in various places (they are also banned in a few cities, like Youngstown, OH and Sioux City, IA.) But ANY breed of dog can become aggressive without enough exercise and mental stimulation.
As New Yorkers and other city dwellers will probably agree, the same holds true for humans...
Please change that photo, Gothamist. Why are you perpetuating an inaccurate stereotype of pitbulls? Pitbulls are actually one of the most loyal breeds around. I own a wonderful pit that I rescued from the shelter five years ago. He is gentle and loyal, and the most wonderful dog - he is friendy and gentle to humans and other dogs alike.
I am so disappointed Gothamist would post such a ridiculously misleading photo. As for the breed specific ban - there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. Why not ban the bad owners instead?
I don't think Gothamist meant any ill will to Pits by posting that picture; that picture is how people see Pit Bulls. Although a pic of a cuddly Pit licking it's owner would be a sharp contrast to the article, and maybe more effective.
I'm going to stop saying Pit now. Pit.
Pits, if raised properly by loving owners, can be wonderful loyal pets, great around families and children.
And ANY DOG raised by an abusive sadistic inhumane owner can turn bad.
The NYCHA is way out of line banning it's tenants from owning pit bulls!
Low-income housing projects wind up doing more harm than good. Poor people are warehoused away from the rest of the population, the layout of these projects separates inhabitants further from the community and creates desolate or hidden areas where crimes can be committed. All projects should be replaced with mixed income buildings that are not isolated from the main thoroughfare and have storefronts on the street level. All housing should allow a mix of incomes.
Got a mean dog?
You will likely also find a mean owner.
www.forgotten-ny.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG3r3wH1vNk&feature=channel_page
so many people with so much hate and so misinformed about pits, they are abused and trains to attacked, they are the most loyal and only want to please their owners. it is the owners that should be banned.
First, you should also mention that they aren't allowing more than one pet per household. This means you can't have more than one cat and you can't have one cat plus one dog.
This may not matter to any of your readers, but what if you temporarily house an animal to help someone out and you get in trouble for it? Pretty lame if you ask me.
The main issue is that this is one more barrier to placing pets in homes. Period.
Regarding John Del Signore's use of the photo and in combo with the Vallone quote, of course you are getting what you want here: lots of enraged comments. Again, pretty lame.
Vallone is quick to comment because he legislates as a dog-hater. I sometimes have to ignore updates on his work because it can be so infuriating. Don't you want to just force him to volunteer to walk dogs at the shelter? Give him some time to socialize puppies, that'll convince him to stop the hate! Ooh, and great photo op. too! Someone from the Mayor's Alliance should get on this now.
I think it would do everyone some good to consider how this will negatively affect both people and animals. Only then can we criticize this issue in a constructive way and then get somewhere with it. Sure NYCHA deserves the ability to set regulations for their properties, but not ones that will harm people and their pets.
Too bad we can't ban humans for being dangerous and overweight, too.
here is my "viscious" pit bull playing with a french bulldog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibZmvXeAKeM
what a terror!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI2KHHQQptg
here she is playing slide down the hill...ohhh! horror!!!