ohmidog!

I’m pretty sure this is a work of art designed for Facebook posting, as opposed to an actual billboard.

And it’s slightly innacurate — while Ohio law pretty strictly regulates pit bulls, the state isn’t removing them from homes and exterminating them on sight.

But we love the sign/art anyway, and it does make a good point.

To be cracking down on pit bulls — all while a suicidal ex-convict is being allowed to keep dangerous wild animals on his property — makes Ohio seem something of a laughing stock.

Was Terry Thompson, who freed 53 wild animals from their cages at his private reserve before commiting suicide this week, required to have $100,000 worth of insurance, as state law requires of pit bull owners?

If he had two of the same breed, could wardens arbitarily seize one, as allowed under the Ohio law with pit bulls?

Was he subject to fines and worse if his animals weren’t properly muzzled, or securely fenced and enclosed, as pit bull owners have been?

Some Ohio cities, like Cleveland and Toledo, avoided the state’s strict line on pit bulls by passing their own kinder and gentler dangerous dog laws — laws that didn’t automatically presume all pit bulls to be vicious.

And the state legislature, we should point out, is considering removing wording from its dangerous animal law that currently labels all pit bulls as vicious — a move that would bring an end to the over-reaching restrictions.

House Bill 14 passed the House and was sent to the Senate, but not much has been heard of its status since then.

Until it does pass, the state will likely fall victim to the kind of ribbing this Facebooker came up with.

(Photo: From the Facebook page of John Sibley)