Pit Bulletin Legal News to hold roundtable discussion on Maryland ruling tonight

Pit Bulletin Legal News will hold a roundtable discussion on the Tracey vs. Solesky Maryland court ruling that declared strict liability rules for owners of pit bulls (and their landlords) tonight at 8 PM. You can tune in by visiting the website and listening to the program on the website this evening.

Also, Stop BSL has posted a pretty grounding blog that puts this Maryland ruling in some perspective ... it points out that, among other things, 35 other states in this country already have strict liability rules for dogs of all breeds that bite that match the new strict liability that Maryland's court just assigned to pit bull owners. So in other words, in many states, no matter what breed of dog you have, if it bites, it's considered dangerous – a plaintiff does not have to prove that in court. It'd be nice if the Maryland judges – if they were truly concerned about giving people bitten by dogs an easier time in court in general – would have applied their ruling to all dogs, just as they have in other states. Stop BSL makes an incredibly good point in this post:

Maryland victims of non-pit bull dog bites should be outraged by this court decision. The ruling turns the majority of Maryland dog bite victims into second-class citizens. The legal recourses available to Maryland victims are now based entirely on what the dog that bit looks like. Only bite victims where the dog looked like a “pit bull” will have strict liability recourse—everyone else has to continue to live with the “one free bite” rule.

I would hope that dog-bite victims' advocates would cling to this and insist that all dog-bite victims – and therefore all dogs – receive the same treatment under the law.