[Purple]

City residents appeal dog ordinance ruling
Two pit bull owners claim the city’s law on aggressive dogs is unconstitutional.

By Don Spatz
Reading Eagle


Reading, PA - Two city residents who have tried unsuccessfully for seven years to get Berks County Court to shoot down the city’s ordinance on aggressive dogs have appealed to Commonwealth Court.

Pit bull owners Stacie Stankiewicz of Pear Street and Kenneth Steeves Sr. of Cotton Street claim the ordinance is unconstitutional and that the Pennsylvania Dog Law forbids municipalities from prohibiting or limiting a specific breed of dog.

They made the same claims in the original suit filed in 2000. That case moved slowly through the system before Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl in February ruled the ordinance is legal and constitutional.

Attorney Jack A. Linton, who with attorney Allan R. Kauffman filed the appeal, called the ordinance arbitrary and capricious.

“I can understand why the city wants the law,” Linton said. “But why can’t we use the (state) dog law to go after the people responsible?”

Schmehl said in his decision that the state law takes effect only after an attack, but the ordinance tries to prevent an attack.

“Protecting the people of Reading and their pets from attack-prone dog breeds is a legitimate concern of the city,” Schmehl wrote.

He ruled the ordinance neither prohibits nor limits any specific breed, but rather requires more stringent handling of any breed that has a statistically demonstrated penchant for attack.

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