Marty
02-13-2008, 09:20 PM
Kansas City,MO -- Chalk a victory up for man's best friend in Kansas City, Kansas. A man just won his eight month legal battle with the city to keep his dog after proving it wasn't a pit bull.
For the last eight months, Niko has been living in the KCK Animal Control Kennels while his owners fought with the city. Animal Control said the dog violated the pit bull ban, but the dog's owner has said all along the dog is actually a boxer mix.
Niko has only been a free dog for a couple of days. Mike Johnson said it's obvious that eight months in the pound was tough on Niko.
"He lost some fur and has quite a bit of a cough," Johnson said. "He lost about 10-15 pounds."
This all started because the family put up an ad trying to find Niko a new home. Animal Control saw the ad and confiscated the dog, calling it a pit bull, even though paperwork called the dog a boxer.
After months of legal wrangling and a DNA test, all charges have been dropped and now they plan on keeping Niko for good.
"I don't feel it's fair at all," Johnson said. "For one they took our dog. We had documentation what type of dog it was but they wouldn't even look at that."
"People like Mike and Amy get caught in this loop, they actually had criminal charges brought up against them," Cheryl Buell with KC Dog Advocates said.
Buell said this shows pit bull bans are hard to enforce and that's exactly why other cities are changing laws, like Edwardsville, which just changed its ordinance Monday night, removing the pit bull ban.
"Beefing up their dangerous dog ordinance, make sure the people with dangerous dogs are held accountable, those are the people you want to punish fine," Buell said.
Buell wants KCK to re-examine its ordinance.
"It was hard on the dog and the people involved and a huge waste of tax money and it didn't accomplish anything because it wasn't a vicious dog to begin with," she said.
A KCK spokesman said the pit bull ban is there to protect people. It was only a year and a half ago that a 71-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a pit bull in KCK.
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5757542&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
For the last eight months, Niko has been living in the KCK Animal Control Kennels while his owners fought with the city. Animal Control said the dog violated the pit bull ban, but the dog's owner has said all along the dog is actually a boxer mix.
Niko has only been a free dog for a couple of days. Mike Johnson said it's obvious that eight months in the pound was tough on Niko.
"He lost some fur and has quite a bit of a cough," Johnson said. "He lost about 10-15 pounds."
This all started because the family put up an ad trying to find Niko a new home. Animal Control saw the ad and confiscated the dog, calling it a pit bull, even though paperwork called the dog a boxer.
After months of legal wrangling and a DNA test, all charges have been dropped and now they plan on keeping Niko for good.
"I don't feel it's fair at all," Johnson said. "For one they took our dog. We had documentation what type of dog it was but they wouldn't even look at that."
"People like Mike and Amy get caught in this loop, they actually had criminal charges brought up against them," Cheryl Buell with KC Dog Advocates said.
Buell said this shows pit bull bans are hard to enforce and that's exactly why other cities are changing laws, like Edwardsville, which just changed its ordinance Monday night, removing the pit bull ban.
"Beefing up their dangerous dog ordinance, make sure the people with dangerous dogs are held accountable, those are the people you want to punish fine," Buell said.
Buell wants KCK to re-examine its ordinance.
"It was hard on the dog and the people involved and a huge waste of tax money and it didn't accomplish anything because it wasn't a vicious dog to begin with," she said.
A KCK spokesman said the pit bull ban is there to protect people. It was only a year and a half ago that a 71-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a pit bull in KCK.
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5757542&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1