Post by RealPitBull on Feb 22, 2008 9:36:32 GMT -5
Another town talks of pit-bull ban
Whitehall raises idea as county cites more owners
Friday, February 22, 2008 3:23 AM
By Alayna DeMartini
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Kirk Irwin | Dispatch photos
Roy Bryson of Whitehall plays with his American bulldog Freestyle in his backyard. He built the 6-foot wooden fence to keep in his three pit bulls.
Bella eyes the camera while Roy Bryson's two other American bulldogs -- Freestyle, left, and Boogey -- play in the background.
When the white pit bull pounced, it pushed a pregnant Cassie Sprague onto the ground.
The dog bit Sprague's arm and her dog's leg one day last summer in Whitehall, where City Council members now are talking about banning pit bulls. Bexley and Reynoldsburg already forbid them.
Pit bulls accounted for one-third of the dog bites reported to the Franklin County dog pound last year, although they represent only 1 percent of licensed dogs in the county.
And more pit-bull owners are being cited for failing to confine their pet or failing to obtain the $100,000 liability insurance that state law requires. Violations more than doubled last year, county records show.
"There's people in our community who live in fear of going out," said Whitehall Councilwoman Jacquelyn Thompson, the main supporter of the ban. Mayor John Wolfe said he expects a proposal before the council in the next few months.
Pit bulls run loose in some Whitehall neighborhoods in the summer, residents say.
Owners say they have a right to keep them.
"These dogs are like our children," said Emily Lowe, whose boyfriend, Roy Bryson, was charged last year with failing to properly confine their three American bulldogs, which the state classifies as pit bulls. Bryson also was charged with not having insurance for them, not having a license for two of them, and not vaccinating one against rabies.
Bryson pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charges and paid for insurance, licenses and shots. He built a 6-foot wooden fence in his backyard to replace the 3-foot wire fence that was no challenge for his dogs to clear. One of them hopped the lower fence one afternoon into the neighbor's backyard.
Lowe said she and her boyfriend have worked with the dogs to make sure they're good around people.
"There needs to be strict legislation for bad dog owners out there," she said. "We're not one of them."
Lowe emphasized that her dogs haven't bitten neighbors, and she said Bryson used to walk them without a leash.
"The worst thing they want to do is sniff you," she said. "You could pull their food from their dishes, and they wouldn't do anything."
Neighbors of pit-bull owners aren't always convinced of that.
Georgetta Fleming was walking out to the driveway of her Colgate Road house with her 9-year-old son last summer when a pit bull jumped on her and tried to bite her. She told her son to run around to the back of the house.
"Scared me to death," she said.
She called 911. She still doesn't know whose dog it was.
Pit bulls are a far more serious problem in Columbus than in the suburbs, said Craig Turk, an assistant director of the county dog pound. The city's poorest neighborhoods have the most pit bulls, he said.
All but a handful of pit-bull bites reported last year were in Columbus.
In November, a 50-pound pit bull attacked an 11-year-old boy who was later hospitalized. The attack happened on Ashburton Avenue on the East Side. A passing motorist drove into the yard to try to hit the dog so the boy could get away. The boy's mother said the dog belonged to a guest in their home.
A pit bull on the loose got inside the automatic doors of Nationwide Children's Hospital in December. When it walked back outside, Columbus police officers used a stun gun to subdue it. That pit bull and another one had trapped a man inside his car.
ademartini@dispatch.com
Whitehall raises idea as county cites more owners
Friday, February 22, 2008 3:23 AM
By Alayna DeMartini
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Kirk Irwin | Dispatch photos
Roy Bryson of Whitehall plays with his American bulldog Freestyle in his backyard. He built the 6-foot wooden fence to keep in his three pit bulls.
Bella eyes the camera while Roy Bryson's two other American bulldogs -- Freestyle, left, and Boogey -- play in the background.
When the white pit bull pounced, it pushed a pregnant Cassie Sprague onto the ground.
The dog bit Sprague's arm and her dog's leg one day last summer in Whitehall, where City Council members now are talking about banning pit bulls. Bexley and Reynoldsburg already forbid them.
Pit bulls accounted for one-third of the dog bites reported to the Franklin County dog pound last year, although they represent only 1 percent of licensed dogs in the county.
And more pit-bull owners are being cited for failing to confine their pet or failing to obtain the $100,000 liability insurance that state law requires. Violations more than doubled last year, county records show.
"There's people in our community who live in fear of going out," said Whitehall Councilwoman Jacquelyn Thompson, the main supporter of the ban. Mayor John Wolfe said he expects a proposal before the council in the next few months.
Pit bulls run loose in some Whitehall neighborhoods in the summer, residents say.
Owners say they have a right to keep them.
"These dogs are like our children," said Emily Lowe, whose boyfriend, Roy Bryson, was charged last year with failing to properly confine their three American bulldogs, which the state classifies as pit bulls. Bryson also was charged with not having insurance for them, not having a license for two of them, and not vaccinating one against rabies.
Bryson pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charges and paid for insurance, licenses and shots. He built a 6-foot wooden fence in his backyard to replace the 3-foot wire fence that was no challenge for his dogs to clear. One of them hopped the lower fence one afternoon into the neighbor's backyard.
Lowe said she and her boyfriend have worked with the dogs to make sure they're good around people.
"There needs to be strict legislation for bad dog owners out there," she said. "We're not one of them."
Lowe emphasized that her dogs haven't bitten neighbors, and she said Bryson used to walk them without a leash.
"The worst thing they want to do is sniff you," she said. "You could pull their food from their dishes, and they wouldn't do anything."
Neighbors of pit-bull owners aren't always convinced of that.
Georgetta Fleming was walking out to the driveway of her Colgate Road house with her 9-year-old son last summer when a pit bull jumped on her and tried to bite her. She told her son to run around to the back of the house.
"Scared me to death," she said.
She called 911. She still doesn't know whose dog it was.
Pit bulls are a far more serious problem in Columbus than in the suburbs, said Craig Turk, an assistant director of the county dog pound. The city's poorest neighborhoods have the most pit bulls, he said.
All but a handful of pit-bull bites reported last year were in Columbus.
In November, a 50-pound pit bull attacked an 11-year-old boy who was later hospitalized. The attack happened on Ashburton Avenue on the East Side. A passing motorist drove into the yard to try to hit the dog so the boy could get away. The boy's mother said the dog belonged to a guest in their home.
A pit bull on the loose got inside the automatic doors of Nationwide Children's Hospital in December. When it walked back outside, Columbus police officers used a stun gun to subdue it. That pit bull and another one had trapped a man inside his car.
ademartini@dispatch.com