To schedule an interview, contact: Alex Shesterkin (248) 760-6867 alex.shesterkin@chrysler.com
Michigan Victims of Breed Discrimination Laws Victim: Marilena Gahman Waterford, Michigan I live in Waterford with my two dogs. In June 2014, Officer Knapp came by and gave me a citation for owning possible pit bulls, which I understand is an infraction of a township ordinance. He suggested I contact you after I call the court, which I did this morning. I need to make an appearance before the 23rd. I have just been discharged from the hospital and cannot drive or leave the house for a while, but my daughter-in-law is flying in this weekend, so I'll come early next week. About my dogs, I included a picture. I confess that when people ask about their breed, I let them think what they want. I am an old woman living alone in a less than safe neighborhood. When I walk them (I use a harness), however, people stop, make fun of me because I am small and they are not, and then they pet them without any incident. Both dogs love people of any size and will go home with anyone. For their protection, I have put up a tall privacy fence. Fortunately, I have a large lot and they get plenty of exercise chasing squirrels. Naya, the darker dog, is a rescue from "Last Day Dog Rescue." She is from a kennel up north. Her mother was a full boxer, father unknown. She was probably used for breeding. She had just given birth to 10 puppies. Second Chance, I found in the neighborhood. He did not show signs of abuse and I tried my best to find his owner by calling shelters, veterinarians, asking the mail person, asking neighbors, but all without success. I eventually took him to the Michigan Humane Society where he was neutered and received all his shots. Both dogs are licensed. The veterinarian was not sure what breed he would fit in, but felt he had the look of an English mastiff. I would appreciate any help/suggestions in this matter. These dogs are my family. They are gentle and very attached to me and to each other. If I beat this cancer, I don't want to be alone.
Victim: Kuretich Family Center Line, Michigan I had a dog. I had him since he was a puppy. “MURPHY” WAS THE BEST DOG EVER! We lived in Shelby Township. We wanted to move closer to family, so we bought a house in Center Line. I didn't know any of the ordinances. We moved in and soon learned that the neighbor behind us doesn't like dogs and HATES pit bulls. Murphy was so well behaved. He would do nothing, but bake in the sun, go to the bathroom or chase the squirrels in our fenced yard. I had never received any kind of ticket in my life until I moved to Center Line. My first ticket was for “dog at large running in yard.” MY OWN YARD. I thought this was ridiculous. Murphy wouldn't hurt anyone. One day, my neighbor saw Murphy outside and he went to the fence, which startled my dog. The neighbor jabbed his pitchfork at my dog and my dog started barking. So, my first ticket was for that, then I got a packet from the city telling me what to do in order to keep Murphy. I had to have him microchipped and a huge list to follow. I had to build a dog cage with restrictions on how it had to look. I had to walk my dog on a four-foot leash with a muzzle on, in my own backyard that was fenced in! I decided to be neighborly and talk to the guy to see if we could make amends. He agreed that my dog could be hooked on a long leash that doesn't go near the fence. The first time I did that he called the police. They came out and warned me. Then, my dad let Murphy out in the pouring rain to go potty. I told him he couldn't do that and just as we got Murphy inside, the police came to our door. The officer said they didn't see it happen, so they wouldn't issue the ticket, but my neighbor signed it, so I got the ticket anyway. Long story short, I received multiple tickets. I spent a lot of money. I had just about every officer on the force to my house at one time or another. It was a barrage of constant harassment. I had the lieutenant come to my house to inspect things. I was told by the police to get a privacy fence, so I did. After that, the police told me I could let my dog run in our yard, but after the neighbor called again to complain, I had to muzzle Murphy when he would spend time in our yard – a senior dog who hadn’t done anything wrong. The police said that even though I installed a sixfoot privacy fence, at their instruction, “there is still a chance he could get over the fence.” My dog at that point was around 9 years old. He had no interest and no ability to climb or hop the fence. My last ticket was issued in 2012. I went to court December 2012. The city attorney made the determination that my neighbor was harassing us and “being a nuisance.” In May 2014, Murphy turned 11 years old. We had lived in Center Line for six years and since the first ticket, we have wanted to move out of the city. Shortly after Murphy turned 11, he started having seizures. We found out he had a tumor in his brain and his heart wasn't pumping right. We had to make the heart-wrenching decision to put him down. I haven't had issues for almost a year with the police or neighbor. I would love to get another pit bull, but living in this city, no. I wouldn’t put another dog through all that. My opinion of Center Line is forever set in mind that it is a nightmare place to live, discriminating against honest families who haven’t bothered anyone.
BSL Victim: Weissinger Family Pontiac, Michigan My name is Meredith and I am a mother. I have been living at my current residence for roughly six years. Last year on June 5, 2013, I adopted my dog “Justyce.” I was told by the apartment manager that despite the “no pets” policy, I could keep the dog as long as I cleaned up after her. The past year with Justyce has been wonderful. She is a devoted friend to my son and has added a lot of love to our family. We couldn’t imagine life without her. She is a family member. Then, in July 2014, after having Justyce for more than a year, I received a letter from the apartment management office stating I had three days to find my dog a new home or face eviction. Well, finding her a new home was not an option for me, as Justyce has helped me deal with depression, as well as other personal issues, and I would not put my son through the trauma of losing his best friend. It simply wasn’t an option. After receiving the letter from the apartment complex, I called Pam at Animal Care Network and she put me in contact with Terry at Michigan Pit Bull Education Project. Terry told me how to file a 504 form, which is a request for reasonable accommodations due to my disability, and how to register Justyce as an emotional support service dog. I had a letter from my doctor and followed through with the instructions. Thankfully, I am able to keep my dog and my family together. I hate that this could happen to any dog owner anywhere and anytime in Michigan. It’s a terrible feeling to be singled out when you haven’t done anything wrong.
BSL Victim: McComsey Family Waterford, Michigan In August 2011, Waterford Township police officers came to my property, petted my dogs over the fence and told me that I was harboring pit bulls. Because my two dogs, a brindle female boxer puppy and an adult neutered male American bulldog/boxer mix, looked like pit bulls to them, I was ordered to get rid of them or when the police return to check my yard, if they are still there, the officers would take them away and kill them. No ticket, no fine, just “get rid of them or else.” I was terrified and intimidated, so I re-homed my puppy immediately, but then I gained my composure and decided that my family dog “Milo” was worth fighting for. After much thought and a view of the neighbors, who I could no longer trust, from my front yard, I made the choice to move out of Waterford to save my dog and my family. I put my house up for sale October 2011, sold it January 2012 and we moved to a BSL-free community in another county April 2012. I attended the Waterford Township city council meeting to inform them that they lost a resident, a hard-working, tax-paying family who had done nothing wrong, bothered no one, yet had been targeted for discrimination. On the same day that I spoke about my ordeal to the Waterford Township council, told them about my wonderful family dog and what my family was put through by Waterford Township, I received a letter from my new community, stating as long as I followed the ordinance for all pet owners, I would have no problems and WELCOME to the community. There have been no problems with my dog or his acceptance since moving out of Waterford. Discrimination is wrong. Targeting hard-working dog owners is wrong. Tearing apart my family is wrong.
VICTIM: Kyllonen Family Waterford, Michigan I am a mother. I have two children, a 5-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, with one on the way. My family was devastated when I was served with a misdemeanor ticket by Waterford Township for a pit bull violation and was basically told if I did not get rid of my dog, I would be forced to have him killed. I did not like what I heard. Our family dog “Oreo� was not going to leave my home. He has never caused any mischief in my neighborhood and he has never been neglected in any sort of way. So needless to say, we hired a lawyer, which all-in-all broke our bank account completely. We lived without electricity at times because we had to spend vast amounts of money on court and attorney fees. The end result of our fight to keep our family dog was that we got to keep him, but we know that many, many victims of breed discrimination are not so lucky. I was guilty until I proved my own innocence at my own expense. The ordeal set my family back financially and we are still struggling to recover. Our country is supposed to protect the innocent and the burden of proof is supposed to fall on the accuser, but not in our case. No one should face was our family went through to keep our family together.
Victim: Knutson Family Waterford, Michigan I am a mother to four beautiful girls and a very loving husband. We moved to Waterford, Michigan, from Colorado two years ago. We packed up our three youngest girls, our cat “Wolf” and our 8-year-old boxer/lab mix “Quinn” for the cross-country move. Quinn is my therapy dog who helps me battle depression and anxiety. The first year we lived in Waterford was great, then my now 13-year-old wanted a puppy to call her own. We found puppies for sale on the Internet saying lab mix. We picked her out and had her for exactly one year. We named her Snooki. One day, I took all of my dogs for a walk and soon after received a letter from Waterford Township accusing me of housing two pit bulls at my residence. I didn't understand why I was targeted or why they thought I even had a pit bull. My dogs never had any problems or gave the neighborhood any problems. My neighbors had no problem with us and no one had ever said my dogs look like a pit bulls. I knew for a fact my Quinn is not a pit bull. I had met her parents and knew that she didn’t have an ounce of pit bull in her. I went to city hall and gave them the paperwork from my vet that identified Quinn as a lab/boxer mix and my other dog as a lab mix. I was told everything was okay after that, but the entire ordeal had boosted my anxiety and fear that someone would hurt my pets. As a result, my family was torn apart as we felt we had to give up our puppy Snooki to avoid any additional problems. I advertised her everywhere I could in order to find her a good home, but no one called and no one wanted her. I knew she would be killed if I took her to the animal shelter. I finally convinced my mom, who lives in a different state, to take her, hoping one day Snooki would be able to come back home to her family. We began searching for a new residence outside of Waterford – one that wouldn’t discriminate against our family. In the meantime, my mother fell in love with Snooki and plans to keep her. She gets along well with my mom’s senior dog and we don’t want to upset her world again, but I bought Snooki for my daughter, who is no longer with me. It hurts that I gave up a family member because people choose to profile, choose to discriminate and choose to target families who haven’t committed a crime or done anything wrong. I have learned a lot about pit bulls throughout this process and I would own one in a heartbeat, but that means there are many areas of the state where I’m not allowed to live. That doesn’t feel good.
Victim: Backus Family Waterford, Michigan We are a very close family, including our dog “Georgia.” We recently had our dear Georgia taken from us. Our neighbor was walking her dog and stopped in our yard to allow her dog to go to the bathroom. Georgia was in the house, barking in the window so the neighbor called the police, saying that we have a pit bull. Georgia has never bitten anyone and wasn't even outside. The police came and gave my husband a misdemeanor ticket for a pit bull violation because we live in Waterford Township, which has a discrimination law and doesn't allow them. We have paperwork that shows Georgia’s yearly licenses and vaccination records, but my husband didn't have them that day because they were still in my purse from a recent camping trip that we had all gone on together. We tried to show the paperwork to the court, but it didn't want to see them until our court hearing. We were told by the courts that Georgia had to be removed from our home within 24 hours. We sent Georgia to stay with my oldest daughter at a friend’s home. Over the next three weeks, Georgia didn't eat, drink or play and lost 10 lbs. My youngest daughter has been incredibly upset and acting out with anger at losing her best friend. My husband and I haven’t slept for weeks. We even had a DNA test done to prove that Georgia is a bulldog, but the courts want to see photos of what she looks like, as if her appearance has anything to do with her behavior. She’s a wonderful family dog who has never been a problem, a nuisance or anything else except for a loyal, loving, devoted family member. My family needs our dog back. My dog desperately needs her family back. She is suffering and we are all heartbroken.
Victim: Conlin Family Scio Farms Mobile Home Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan In December 2010, I was finally able to convince my mother that we should get a second dog. When looking for a dog, the first thing we considered was size. We already had a chocolate lab “Dewey,” who at the time weighed 98 pounds. Living in a mobile home, we knew that we wanted to get a dog that would be big enough to play with him, but also not get as big as Dewey. When looking at pictures of dogs on the Humane Society of Huron Valley (HSHV) website, I found “Jax” (named “Dasher” at the time). Jax was very cute. He had a spotted ear and was estimated to be about 8 months old. I went to meet him and, of course, it was love at first sight. The next step was to ensure that Jax and Dewey would get along. The dogs were a great match right from the beginning and we moved forward with adopting Jax. We took a copy of the rules from our mobile home community with us to make sure we were in compliance. This mobile home park has banned “aggressive breeds,” which I now know isn’t something that even exists. HSHV listed Jax as a beagle/terrier mix. At the time of adoption, Jax was emaciated and only weighed 21 lbs and had a bad skin infection. We brought Jax home and nursed him back to health. He put on healthy weight and is now about 40 lbs. He even helped Dewey lose some weight by being more active and since then, Dewey has become a much healthier dog, too.
Fast forward to May 5, 2014, when we received a notice on our door that we must provide the mobile home park with photos of both of our dogs because they are not registered and no "pit bulls" are allowed. We provided the park with photos of both of our dogs, paperwork from our vet showing that Jax is a terrier mix and his paperwork from HSHV. The important thing to note is that this complaint was not based on Jax's behavior at all. He has never had a negative interaction with anyone in our community or anywhere else for that matter. This was simply made into an issue because one neighbor, who doesn't like us, decided that our dog looked like a pit bull. We heard nothing back from the park after turning in this paperwork until June 19 when we received a notice saying that Jax was not approved and we had to have him out of the community by July 1. Imagine that. Just because of how a member of our family looks, we had to remove him, we had to rip
apart our family, we had to upset Jax’s life, Dewey’s life and our lives because of discrimination based solely on appearance. At this point, I reached out to different rescue groups for help. Needless to say, we did not destroy our family. We did not remove our dog from our home and we explored our options on how best to fight for him. We received the summons to appear in court on August 21. Our court date was set for September 4 at the 14A district court in Saline. As responsible dog owners, our argument was that we provided the necessary documentation and that our dog had not been accused of doing anything wrong. And, we are not comfortable with the mobile home management deciding the breed of our dog based on a photo, especially when a vet had already provided that information. When meeting with the mobile home park’s lawyer beforehand, he tried to contend that the park had ultimate say and referenced their broad rules, which had changed AFTER Jax's adoption to include “no mixes of banned breeds allowed.” After appearing in front of Judge Cedric Simpson, he decided that he would make the determination on Jax's breed and requested that we bring Jax to the courtroom. We brought Jax in. The park’s management met him and stated that they could not determine his breed and suggested we pay for a DNA test on Jax. . The judge met Jax as well. The judge decided that he was not comfortable with the park’s DNA test suggestion because he didn't feel Jax was aggressive and that the park might ban him if he came back even 1% "pit bull." The judge determined that Jax was not a banned breed and that he could stay right where he belonged … with this family. This is why speaking out against BSL is so important to me. Simply because of my dog's physical appearance, he was targeted and not by a professional, but by a neighbor. It’s very important to understand who gets to determine the breed of our pets/family members. And that my dog should not be judged based on his appearance but rather his behavior. Obviously this issue was with a housing community, but if BSL is banned, perhaps housing communities will have a harder time enforcing discriminatory rules.