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Tennessee:

Current Pit Bull Owners Will Have To Get Liability Insurance

POSTED: 2:32 pm CDT July 6, 2007
UPDATED: 2:52 pm CDT July 6, 2007

SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. -- After complaints about dogs running loose, city officials banned residents from owning pit bulls.

"We have a dog problem in general," said City Manager Tom Landers. "We had an incident with a pit bull probably six months ago, but with a dog like that you never know when it's going to go off."

The ordinance cites problems such as "a combination of agility, stamina and strength, together with a genetic predisposition to aggressiveness" that makes the dogs "uniquely dangerous, even to their owners."

Current owners will be allowed to keep their pit bulls only if they register the dogs and carry $100,000 in liability insurance. Those who don't comply could have their dogs seized and can be fined.

Current owners also have to keep the dogs in kennels or inside their homes.

Nathan Ellis owns two pit bulls that guard his auto repair business and said the law unfairly singles out one breed.

"It shouldn't be against one dog," he said while playing with his pit bull Sable on Thursday. "I understand people raise them and fight them, but you've got to make a dog do that."

Ellis said he will have to get rid of the dogs because he can't find an insurance agent to write a liability policy.

Jennifer Streun breeds pit bulls with her boyfriend at Johnson's American Pit Bull Kennel.

"It's an owner problem, not an animal problem," she said. "Some people who get these dogs as a status symbol don't know how to train them. They are what's called a 'bully breed,' and can be very (stubborn)."

The daughter of South Pittsburg Police Chief Mark Garner was bitten by a pit bull when she was a child.

"I know how scary it is when a child is attacked by a pit bull," he said.

He said it will be difficult to enforce the ordinance and is asking residents to work with officials.

http://www.wsmv.com/news/13635553/de...=nash&psp=news