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The Chako Blog.
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When Public Officials Go Bad
by Dawn Capp, M.S., J.D.
Attorney at Law
Kory Nelson has declared War on Pit Bulls. He's Senior
Assistant City Attorney for the City and County of Denver,
Colorado, and he has made it his personal mission to eradicate
Pit Bulls from the United States, even going to far as to call
up Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco to give him unsolicited
tips on how to exterminate this breed of dog.
Nelson even wrote an article for Municipal Lawyer
titled, "Why Pit Bulls Are More Dangerous and Breed Specific
Legislation is Justified." He is a man with a passion for
killing Pit Bulls. In 2002, Denver euthanized 338 Pit Bulls.
A study reported in a 1994 Pediatrics article titled,
"Which Dogs Bite? A Case-Control Study of Risk Factors" sought
to determine dog-specific factors independently associated
with a dog biting a non-household member. Cases were selected
from dogs reported to Denver Animal Control in 1991 for a
first-bite episode of a non-household member in which the
victim received medical treatment.
The study found that children aged 12 and under comprised over
half of the victims. The breed of dog responsible for the most
bites -- the German Shepherd Dog.
Kory Nelson's article advocating the mass killing of dogs
contains a small biographical blurb about the man who has made
exterminating a breed he considers dangerous his personal
mission in life. That blurb contains one very interesting
piece of information.
Kory Nelson owns a German Shepherd.
Since German Shepherds were responsible for the most dog bites
resulting in medical attention in the aforementioned study, we
suggest Denver ban German Shepherds next. Of course, after
German Shepherds, Denver will have to ban Chow Chows because
they were second on the list of biting dogs (then Labrador
Retrievers, Cocker Spaniels, and Akitas).
German Shepherds, often bred for protection work, have
frequently made the news for attacks. An 8 year-old Chicago
boy was attacked by a neighbor's two German Shepherds on
Christmas Eve (2005). A Lancaster, PA police dog mauled a girl
on a school playground. Little six year-old Bailey Prosser was
mauled by a German Shepherd in 2005.
Kory Nelson proves himself to be the worst kind of hypocrite
-- one that uses the law as a weapon to embark on his own
personal crusade to exterminate a breed he personally despises
while owning a breed of dog that ranks #1 on the list of
biting dogs for his own County.
German Shepherds, of course, are not banned in Denver, and
Kory Nelson has no interest in banning them since he owns one.
Of course, CHAKO does not advocate a ban on German Shepherds,
Pit Bulls, or any other breed. In fact, one of CHAKO's most
active volunteers is a German Shepherd Dog enthusiast.
However, we believe that persons who are public servants and
have authority and power to affect the lives of citizens
should not be allowed to yield that power as a weapon to act
on their own personal prejudices. They should not use the law
to target others while exempting themselves. They are public
servants, not dictators.
Kory Nelson should be removed from his position. He is a
disgrace to lawyers, and an affront to a free and just
society. He is a hypocrite on a personal mission of
destruction.
Those who won our independence believed that the final end
of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties,
and that in its government the deliberative forces should
prevail over the arbitrary. They believed the freedom to think
as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable
to the discovery and spread of political truth... that fear
breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate
menaces stable government....
-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
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