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The new state legislation<\/a> formally lifts Miami-Dade’s longstanding pit bull ban, adopted in 1989 after a pit bull attacked a seven-year-old lady. Under the county’s now-nixed ordinance, individuals who tried to maintain their pit bulls inside county strains needed to pay a $500 positive for every canine, and the county might seize the animals. <\/p>\n Though it isn’t unusual to identify pit-bull-type canine within the county, Miami-Dade Animal Services tells New Times<\/i>\u00a0the company was vigilant in implementing the rule. <\/p>\n “Whenever the enforcement workforce encountered a canine that match the traits and was in violation of the ban, they sometimes acted by citing the proprietor,” a spokesperson from Animal Services says. “In many instances, they supplied the proprietor with an inexpensive period of time to take away the pit bull from the county voluntarily.”<\/p>\n In 1990, the Florida Legislature handed a invoice prohibiting native governments from banning canine based mostly on breed, weight, or dimension. But it allowed current native pet rules to stay in place, so Miami-Dade’s pit bull ban was grandfathered in and stored on the books.<\/p>\n The new legislation, entitled “Authorization of Restrictions Concerning Dogs,” eradicated that exemption and voided remaining native pit bull bans throughout the state as of October 1. <\/p>\n The Humane Society of the United States has lengthy advocated in opposition to breed-specific insurance policies. The group argues these restrictions power canine out of their houses and into restricted shelter house whereas losing animal service companies’ much-needed sources. <\/p>\n “Many animal shelters are flooded with canine, who, due to breed bans, cannot be adopted to the individuals of their communities,” the Humane Society says on its\u00a0web site.<\/a> “Shelters in neighboring cities and counties typically find yourself taking within the canine.”<\/p>\n A shelter overcrowding disaster is going on all through South Florida, pressuring some counties to euthanize extra animals and danger dropping their no-kill standing owing to an absence of house. <\/p>\n Miami-Dade Animal Services informed New Times <\/i>final month that the overpopulation downside has compelled the company to deal with 140 canine at its former headquarters in Medley,<\/a> which lacks air-con and the glamorous facilities on the new Doral headquarters. While animal rights advocates have claimed that the power is in a dilapidated state and the canine are being uncared for, the county says the animals are nicely cared for and that the Medley web site gives a crucial security web for the canine overflow inhabitants. <\/p>\n In 2009, New Times <\/i>chronicled how some pit bull house owners left Miami-Dade to keep away from citations below the ban, whereas others stayed put and hoped to keep away from scrutiny from the county. One Kendall man informed New Times <\/i>he was protecting his pit bull in a darkish bed room day-after-day whereas he labored. <\/p>\n