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Perryville council considering ban on pit bullsFriday, November 21, 2008PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Perryville City Council held a public hearing Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of enacting an ordinance banning pit bulls. About 30 people attended the hearing and 16 stood up to voice their opinions on the potential breed ban, according to Perryville city clerk Tracy Prost. Residents were about evenly split between favoring and opposing the ordinance, she said. No decision has been made, and the council didn't discuss the ordinance after the hearing, Prost said. The draft of the proposed ordinance states that any dog deemed "dangerous" would have to be spayed or neutered in order to remain in city limits, and the owner must maintain a policy of liability insurance to cover any incident with the animal. The ordinance defines "dangerous" as any dog other than a police canine that attacks a person causing injury, property damage, defensive action or a threat of bodily harm. Attacking another animal on property not belonging to the owner would also classify the dog as dangerous under the proposal. The last part of the ordinance involves pit bull dogs. The draft reads "it shall be unlawful for any person to own, possess, keep, exercise control over, maintain, harbor, transport, or sell within the city limit any pit bull." The ordinance contains a grandfather clause, meaning anyone who already owned one of these dogs before the ordinance became official, if it is passed, will be exempt provided they maintain a liability insurance policy on the dog. A pit bill is defined as any dog that is an American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier or any dog displaying characteristics recognized by the American Kennel Club as associated with those breeds. Perryville already has city ordinances against requiring licensing, banning nuisance barking and allowing the impound of nuisance animals at large. The draft does not list penalties, but under the general city code, ordinance violations can be punished with up to a $500 fine and up to three months in the city jail. 388-3635 Does this affect you? Have a comment? Log on to semissourian.com 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.
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ANY DOG can be a dangerous animal. My neighbor has 2 small dogs that would rip you a new one if either of them got a hold of you. The smallest of the 2 is worse than the bigger one. They are NOT pit bulls they're little mixed breed dogs.
Any dog can be dangerous! I have owned 2 pit bulls in my life and both of them were the friendliest dogs you ever saw...as I matter of fact I have seen Yorkies that were much meaner than my pit bulls!
I say it is how you train them, if you train a dog to be mean any dog is dangerous, if you train them to be a pet or watchdog (not attack dog) they are harmless. One of the funniest things I ever saw was one day a new FexEx driver came to my house but did not get out of his truck.
I went out to see what was happening and he was throwing dog biscuits out the window to my pit bull.
He asked me if it was alright to feed her, I said yes but he didn't really need to, since the worst thing she would do to him is "lick him to death"...that dog never knew a stranger in her life!
Pitbulls will lick you to death until something misfires in their feeble brains and they viciously attack. I don't understand how owners can be expected to purchase liability when most are turned down to buy home owners insurance. Ban them.
All it takes is one attack, ask the man in Pemiscot County who owned pit buls for over 20 years, one of his best attacked his skull, he never survived.
MY CHILD WAS ATTACKED AND MAULED BY A CHOW. WHY AREN'T THEY BANNED? I'VE SEEN ROTTWEILERS THAT WON'T LET YOU OUT OF YOUR CAR...WHY ARENE'T THEY BANNED? WHAT ABOUT DOBERMEN? GERMAN SHEPPARDS? DOGS ARE JUST LIKE PEOPLE, SOME ARE GOOD, SOME ARE BAD REGARDLESS OF RACE; ALSO DEPENDS ON HOW THEY WERE RAISED (PEOPLE AND DOGS) YOU WOULD THINK A GOOD LAWYER MIGHT SUGGEST A "DANGEROUS DOG" ORDINANCE INSTEAD OF SINGLING OUT ONE BREED.
Strange isn't it. The Sun Times News Online had this story a couple of weeks ago and then followed up the day after the meeting with another story. They quoted Tracy Prost as saying most of those who spoke were against the ban, while the Missourian says she said it was split 50-50. I asked her myself and she said 98 percent were against the ban. I wonder she would tell the Missourian it was split 50-50 or maybe the Missourian reported misquoted the city clerk...could that be. Is there an agenda here?
In rewponse to the question about other breeds being banned. The ordinance was posted in its entiretly on Sun Times News Online. If you check you would see that it deals with all "dangerous dogs" regardless of breed. It does single out pit bulls, but any dog which displays certain aggressive characteristics would fall under the ordinance.
A quick note: We will be correcting the online story shortly. A correction will also appear in tomorrow's print edition. As one of the comments point out, most of those who spoke at the hearing voiced opposition to the ordinance. After doublechecking with the city clerk, 15 spoke against the ordinance. Only 1 spoke in favor.
Also, due to an editing error, the original story incorrectly reported that Perryville already has ordinances "against" requiring licensing, banning nuisance barking and allowing the impoundment of nuisance animinals at large. In fact, the opposite is true.
Please look for more to come from Missourian editors shortly. We regret the errors.
The errors have been corrected. See the note at the top of the story. We apologize for the inaccuracies in the original version.
I've owned 3 pit bulls in my lifetime. They were very smart and friendly animals. I got bit by a mutt 2 weeks ago. It had no pit bull in it.
The problem, most of the time, is the stupid people that want to be macho by having a mean dog.
Good. The problem is whatever you feel about pit bulls, 99.9% of people who own them are not responsible enough to. A machine gun in the hands of the right person isn't a problem. It's being in the hands of the wrong people which is the problem, which is why they are illegal. Chows and Rotts are dangerous too, but if you look at nationwide statistics, I bet they pale in comparison to pit bulls in fatalities, if not serious attacks. I think pits should be banned completely in this country b/c the overwhelming majority of people who own them are idiots. And even the "responsible" people who own them do so b/c they want to look tough and intimidating, whether they will admit that to themselves and others or not.
Anyone who owns a pit bull is stupid. Cape city council...please follow the lead of the smaller more forward thinking town and outlaw these dangerous dogs!
Ask the young father in Oregon how he feels about pit bulls, his daughter was savagely attacked this week. You want his opinion??????
Here I am back again...all I have to say this time is it's a good thing I live in the country...if the city dwellers want to have a "police state" when it comes to dogs let them...I will have my pit bulls if I want them, I find a pit bull (properly trained) to be one of the friendliest dogs on earth.
Actually if all those city dwellers are so afraid of pit bulls, maybe that is an advantage, maybe if they come to knock my door down and rob me, I won't have to use my shotgun...they will see my friendly pit bull and run off!
I agree that alot of the folks that get the breed do so just to have a "pit bull" and be cool or whatever. My family has a "pit bull" so I guess that puts us in the idiot group huh? Especially since we have a 1 year old right? Do some youtube searches on pit bulls and you can see alot of responsible owners who really love the breed and they're animals just as my family does. It's not just a gang banger dog. There are top police dogs, search and rescue dogs and therapy dogs that are all pit bulls. FDR's dog in the white house was a pit bull. I don't think the little rascals dog (pit bull) ever ate or mauled one of them. Michael J. Fox has three pit's. There are alot of very bad owners who abuse the breed and give them a bad name. Dogs are not bad by nature no matter the breed. They are going to be how they know you want them to be. They want to please you to make you love them. I was drawn to the breed because they are a strong and proud dog. Not for a mean or toughguy look for myself. I hope it doesn't pass in P-ville or anywhere else. Maybe look at kicking dumbass people out of town and finding good homes for the before mentioned dumbass people's dogs. I'm about ready to move back to the country and let you town idiots rule and law yourselves to death.