Stephen Elliott and Howard “Rusty” Fox, a retired Studio City couple, are seeking justice for their 6-month-old Yorkie Vargas, who was put down in February after being attacked by a dog alleged to be a Pit Bull. Mr. Elliott’s middle fingertip was also bitten off when he tried to intervene and save his dog. The medical attempts to reattach the fingertip failed and he had to have a finger-shortening amputation surgery in March. Elliott’s since spoken at an April Studio City Neighborhood Council meeting in an effort to bring attention to the lack of response they are getting from both the dog owner and the involved departments who are responsible for investigating the incident.

Anti-Pit Bull hating demagogue Colleen Lynn of DogsBite.org has also involved herself, publishing a letter that was written by the couple and sent to a representative of Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian. It’s within this letter where Elliott and Fox call for a ban on Pit Bulls, using both Denver’s definition of a Pit Bull and their ban as a “model.” They also suggest bans on the “future sale, breeding or adoption of Pit Bulls.” Going further, they want to see the implementation of a “special Pit Bull license” for dogs grandfathered in, and want to see legislation passed that would automatically label them as being “potentially dangerous,” which would then trigger special requirements forcing owners to obtain a “potentially dangerous breed permit” and require that all owners carry liability insurance.

A lot of this stuff is currently prohibited by state law, which would leave them with focusing on a breed-specific mandatory spay and neuter law (in a city that already has a mandatory spay and neuter law for all dogs), but I’m pointing out their desires because it needs to be noted for the record.

Below is an email communication that I initiated with both of them on May 7th:

Communication with Studio City couple by swaylove

It kind of speaks for itself.

As you can see here, there’s been public communication with Colleen Lynn from DogsBite since at least April…

Just as I briefly mentioned in my initial letter to them, the information alignment between this couple and Lynn is obvious. Their agenda is equally clear, instead of legitimately improving public safety and holding individuals responsible they’d rather ban and kill all of the dogs. As you can see in the above email exchange (page 3), Rusty Fox proclaimed: “I can honestly say kill every one of them.”

If you’d like to counter this madness coming from Elliott and Fox then please send your respectable thoughts to the Studio City Neighborhood Council through this contact form. You can also reach any member of the Los Angeles City Council, who I’m sure are now being lobbied by Elliott and Fox as well.