Marketplace
![[SeMissourian.com]](http://www.semissourian.com/images/nameplate.gif)
|
|
Partly Cloudy ~ River stage: 33.99 Rising Saturday, November 21, 2009 |
RSS
 Print
 Email link
 Respond to editor
 Read comments (14)
 Share link
Scott City to review dog codeTuesday, September 18, 2007The Scott City Council will review the city's restrictions against vicious dogs following an incident last week in which a pit bull in the Cloverdale subdivision attacked and killed another animal. A concerned neighbor living in the area where the attack occurred spoke before the council at its Monday night meeting, stressing the need for the city to do something more to stop vicious dogs on the loose before more animals or even children are hurt. The pit bull attack happened Sept. 11, when the dog owned by Tammy Cotner killed a Chihuahua owned by a neighbor, Scott City police chief Don Cobb said. Cotner was issued a summons for not having the pit bull tied up, which followed a warning issued in July for the same reason. Cobb said his department commonly receives calls about strays and dogs at large, but rarely gets calls about attacks. Dogs at large are considered nuisances under city code, like high weeds, but Cobb said the city issues far more summonses for out-of-control grass. "But a high weed's not going to bite you," he said. During the discussion, council members, Mayor Tim Porch and city attorney Frank Siebert found several different sections of the city code that apply to the vicious dog issue. Now the council's ordinance committee, chaired by councilwoman Leann Wilthong, will examine those ordinances and possibly draft an ordinance to clear up the city code. Scott City has no law defining certain breeds as "vicious," but city code allows animals that pose a threat to humans or animals to be deemed "vicious" by a "licensing authority" -- the city. However the code doesn't specify where that authority lies. Vicious dogs are required to be secured in an enclosure they can't escape from, inside a home or tied up to a leash no longer than 6 feet under the current code. 335-6611, extension 182 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
|
Enter your email address to subscribe to our mailing lists:
|
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Furl
Reddit
Google
hrmm....another way to make pit bulls look bad and to scare citizens into the big brother state.
PUNISH the irresponsible OWNERS...
not the breed in general.
That dog has a history of being loose in the neighborhood.
The owners can barely take care of their own property, so I can't see how they can have the time to take care of a dog.
The owners need to be punished or have the dog forcefully taken away.
I wonder if a lawsuit can be brought upon the owners?
How could any of the other people that live in that area not voice their concern over having a pit bull running loose with children playing and riding bikes. This won't be the last issue with this dog now that it has a taste for it.
It always amazes me when the paper and people pick and choose to slant a story. Lets just stick to the facts. Neither dog was on its owners property, but only one person got a ticket. Does that seem fair? Its more than reasonable to assume that both dogs were at fault equally. As far as the comment about the dogs owners property being substandard. Thats just idiotic. That property is always mowed and has well cared for flower beds. There is also a nice kennel in the back yard that the dog stays in. I have seen this dog play with children, other dogs, and go to Rhodes drive up window for doggie treats. Its probably the best pitbull/pitbull mix dog I have ever seen. People who don't know the situration want to slant things to support thier views. Lets just stick to the facts. I know the dog, the family, and the circumstances of the incident. The dog wasn't vicious, it defended itself. Thats really all there was to it.
Maybe you should interview the supposed dog owners to see what their point is. Afterall it was their dogs in question, nobody elses. It is always easy to write about something when you feel it is one sided. It is unfortunate for both families to have to go through something like this, but it is more important that they be allowed to handle the situation without outside influences. Even if the dogs were known to be good natured animals, no one knows what was going through either of the dog's mind when the incident occured, whether it be self-defense, rough housing or whatever the situation happened.
Gozlinguy have you ever seen a chihuahua? If my chihuahua goes over and meets your much larger dog in the middle of the street and gets killed by your much larger dog, what would be your defense given those simple circumstances? Would you actually take the stand in your defense and say that the chihuahua was barking and tempting the much larger dog to fight or would you say that the much larger dog was in the wrong for viciously attacking the other dog when there was clearly a disadvantage physically for the chihuahua to defend itself? Take those circumstances out of the picture and put a large man in the "much larger dog"'s role and put a small child in the "chihuahua"'s role. What would your defense be then?
Now don't try and say that a dog's life is nothing to a person's life. They are sending people to prison for killing dogs and the owners of dogs to prison that kill people. If a police dog was shot in the line of duty, they take it as killing one of their own officers.
If the owners had a nice kennel, why wasn't the dog placed it in and why on god's good earth wasn't their a chain link fence in place? This could have been a young child that was playfully shooting a watergun at the animal.
For the best interest of the neighborhood, I hope that the owners make arrangements for the dog to placed elsewhere or at least put up a chain-link fence for the dog to roam in.
To the owner's of the chihuahua, I hope you can move on and maybe the owner of the pit bull has some decency and buys you a new dog. If that doesn't happen you always could talk to a lawyer.
Let's euthanize the dog, put him on the grill and have a neighborhood barbecue!
.
NoDisclosure, maybe you should know all the facts before writing. There is a kennel in the backyard where the pitbull is at. The dog got away while playing in the backyard with a bunch of kids, which is what the dog does, play. This dog has also been known to come to my son's ballgames last summer where every kid on the team would love up on that dog and pet it to get good luck before they would bat. It has never been known ro run freely, unless it got away from the kids when they were playing with it. The dog is kept in a kennel all day and let out to go to the bathroom and play. As I said before it is an unfortunate incident for both families to deal with and that is just it, those families should deal with it and nobody should put their noses in it.
I have seen the dog out at ballgames and is very good with kids.But if the dog dont understand a little dog ain't a threat. Then how does it know not to turn a little kid. My biggest problem is the school is right next to that subdivision and that means a lot of kids it could think is a threat. Punish the owners and the dog so someone dont get hurt.
Castnostones this will be my last entry, but you seem to contradict yourself when you say that the dog was never known to run freely but before this incident it was playing with kids in an un-fenced backyard and at the end of each day it was let loose to go to the bathroom and play. If it's let loose to go to the bathroom and play and there is no fence then you are saying that it does run loose everyday.
Where I come from when you have a large dog, you should have a fence. My neighbor has a large dog in a fenced kennel and also has his entire yard fenced off.
Maybe the owners could go to some kind of dog owner education class.
.
I am tired of pit bulls always be labeled as vicious dogs. If it had been a lab or a boxer that attacked another dog it would never had even made the paper let alone a city council meeting. I happen to own a pit bull and a Chihuahua who get along great. My pit is the sweetest dog I have ever had. If I had to worry about one of them around kids it would be my Chihuahua do to his temperment.