No, the New London Pitbulls are not a new minor league sports team in Eastern Connecticut, they are the reason I didn’t get a chance to write my blog post today about my latest thoughts on Google Wave.

So, who are the New London Pitbulls? Well, last night, I received an email on one of the lists I follow which contained the following:

The City of New London wants all pits, rotties, etc. killed that come to the pound--they don't care if they are nice or not and do not want them placed ever. The ACO, Tanya has been trying to find someone to take these pits that were seized from a drug case so she did not have to kill them. Now, it looks like she might lose her job over this.

I have a lot of friends involved in animal rescue and some of them do tend towards hyperbole when something comes up that they are passionate about, so I figured it was best to do a little digging and find out more.

The first piece of information I found was from a WTNH report Wednesday evening, Woman’s Plea to Save Pitbulls. It talked about “Eight pitbulls seized in a New London drug raid” and noted that “It is the city's pitbull policy to put the dogs to sleep in six days if they are not adopted.”

If what WTNH wrote was true, this smacks of Breed Specific Legislation, that is the Government making laws about which breeds of dogs people can and cannot own. This is one issue where my civil libertarian friends agree with my animal activist friends. Breed Specific Legislation is bad policy.

So, I figured I would dig a little bit deeper. I attempted to contact the Animal Control Officers in New London for an update on the Pit Bulls as well as to find out what the official policy is. I have not heard back from them, but I suspect that they have been having a busy day.

The next step was to try and find the Public Information Officer for the New London Police Department. The first person I spoke with wasn’t acquainted with the term Public Information Officer, but when I explained that it was the person in the Department that speaks to the press, she looked around she told me Capt. Dittman normally handled press calls, but in his absence, Capt. Lacey took my call. He was curt and said that the animal control officers have discretion over what happens with the dogs but would not comment on any Police Department policies regarding the dogs, about the dogs themselves, or the way the Animal Control section of the Police Department is organized.

Personally, it would seem incumbent on a Police Department to let people know what their policies are. With this in mind I called the police chief’s office where an administrator took my name, number and question and promised that someone would call me back. I did the same with the City Manager.

Then, at about quarter of noon, a new story came up on the WTNH website, Woman’s fight to save dogs successful.

This was welcome news, but I still have a few concerns. First, and most important, is finding a forever home for these young dogs. Beyond that, is looking into the policies of New London, and for that matter other municipalities about their shelters. Are they using best practices? Do they have breed specific policies? Are there things that can be done to make these shelters more efficient and more successful?

Then, there is the question about whether an animal control officer is really in danger of losing her job for standing up for these dogs. I have heard unsubstantiated rumors that she is accused of ‘leaking’ information about the dogs to the press.

In terms of best practices for Animal Control Officers, all ACOs should have good relations with the press and work closely with them to help get animal adopted. Sherry DeGenova, an Animal Control Officer in Hartford provides the best example of an ACO that works well with the press, helping get dogs adopted, saving the city money and saving dogs lives. The Animal Control Officers in New London should be speaking with the press regularly to try and save dogs. They should be commended for such activities, and if they aren’t doing so, be encouraged to do so.

While I have not heard back from the Chief of Police or the City Manager, I’ve followed up with an email to the Mayor of New London, which I’m including below.