The pit bull breed, as a whole, would no longer be considered “vicious” as a matter of law.
That’s good news to Meg Stephenson, the executive director of the Animal Friends Humane Society in Butler County, which adopts pit bulls.
“If you get a pit bull puppy and socialize it from birth, it will have loyalty and affection and be an all-around great dog. But the general public usually sees what the hype is and the state has made it so difficult to own them ... we don’t place them as fast,” Stephenson said.
The proposed change is not such good news to Fairfield Mayor Ron D’Epifanio. In 1996 the city passed a ban on the ownership of the pit bull. Cincinnati had passed a ban shortly before that, and there was an influx of Cincinnati residents moving to Fairfield at the time, he said.
The mayor couldn’t remember a time he didn’t own a dog, but he is very leery of pit bulls in particular.
“I’ve seen some just be babies, but it’s the way they’re bred. They’ve all turned at some time,” said D’Epifanio, who said police officers had reported being attacked by the dogs and some residents were afraid to walk in certain places because pit bulls would come “charging” at them.
Fairfield also bans pit bull look-alikes so people can’t claim that a dog isn’t a genuine pit bull.
The city of Middletown rewrote its dog laws “about 10 years ago when this issue got hot then,” said Law Director Les Landen. Middletown’s law is more comparable to the proposed new state law, in that pit bulls themselves are not banned, but any aggressive dog can be declared vicious.
“It was a big issue at the state level because Toledo had an ordinate that pit bulls were vicious as a matter of law, and the Supreme Court reversed it ... Our law is based more on the behavior of the dog,” Landen said.
Stephenson said the pit bull’s reputation comes partly from the fact that “they do have more muscles in their jaw structure. But different breeds can be deemed vicious, whether they’re German shepherds, rottweilers or Doberman pinschers. Eventually it will be some other breed,” she said.
Eric Hancock, a deputy dog warden for Warren County, says the proposed change is backed up by his experience.
“In our office, the vast majority of pit bulls we deal with are good dogs. ... pit bulls for years were getting more press than others. It was a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease and people saying pit bulls were horrible,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or eric.robinette@coxinc.com.
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