[Purple]

Greenhills bans pit bulls

BY HEIDI FALLON

GREENHILLS, OH - Despite opposition from several residents, council voted Oct. 2 to ban pit bulls and to change its vicious and dangerous dog laws.

Councilman Fred Murrell said the pit bull ban had been on the table for a year. It wasn't until the state Supreme Court ruled municipalities can outlaw a dog by breed that council was able to consider action, he said.

Several residents spoke against the ban, but Murrell said he felt it was in the best interests and safety of the entire village to ban pit bulls.

"It may be a hardship," Murrell said, "but we have 4,300 residents and a handful of dogs."

The ban takes affect next month. Anyone currently owning or keeping a pit bull must get rid it of by then.

Violators risk having their dog taken and possibly destroyed.

Police Chief Thomas Doyle said the local SPCA has offered to assist his department in enforcing the ban.

Councilman Greg Hermes was the only one to vote against the ban. He said he didn't feel the ban should be "breed specific."

Council was unanimous in amending the dangerous and vicious dog ordinances.

A dangerous dog now will be considered any dog of any breed which has, without provocation, acted in a menacing or threatening way to a person or other animal.

A vicious dog is now described as a dog of any breed which has injured or killed a person or other animal.

Owners of dogs which violate either of the new codes risk fines and having their dogs destroyed.

http://news.communitypress.com/apps/...449/1074/RSS11

[Michele]

This is so wrong.....

[sbpeed18]

Though I am from Northern Kentucky, I drove an hour to this city council meeting to fight the ban. Each citizen only had two minutes to argue their case. The city council had their mind made up before the citizens even presented their opinions. The ban passed 5 to 1. I have never seen a more corrupt city council! I want to fight this ban, but in order to do that I would have to get 150 citizen signatures within the next 19 days. So, it's not likely I'll pursue it. It would be different if i had some greenhills residents standing behind me and helping me!

[EDOGZ818]

Not sure about this.. Does it ban vicious dogs, or vicious dogs & APBT? Does this mean, they can walk into your yard, and if the dog barks.. its deemed vicious? Its seems to vague, and paints with an extremely wide brush. What if your dog isn't an APBT? Technically speaking? IE: Staff, no papered pet bull, or "MIXED BREED"? Are they prepeared to do DNA profiling to "PROVE", its an APBT? Are they going through the dog licenses to see what the owner classified thier dog as? (IE: One owner puts APBT & The other list the littermate as "MIXED BREED"? ) Do they just "LOOK", at the dog and pronounce it an APBT?

[sbpeed18]

they had two different ordinances. One banned pit bulls and the other was a viscous dog ordinance for all breeds. they said they have a vet "expert" with over 25 years who will work with the police department to determine if a dog is a pit bull or not. Simply put, the guy who wrote the ordinance was a political "idiot." His facts supporting the ban were not even backed by research. He was just talking out of his ass! He basically said that pit bulls are violent by nature and they have a high likeliness of turning on their owners. If he had done even an iota of research he would have known that neither argument is true!