Shon
05-13-2004, 06:41 PM
The Plantation City Council backed away on Wednesday from a proposed ordinance that would have placed special restrictions on pit bulls.
The law would have classified these animals as dangerous and required their owners to muzzle them, to use leashes no longer than 6 feet, and to place them in pens.
State law, however, prohibits deeming a dog as dangerous based on its breed. The kinds of restrictions that were proposed by Plantation are reserved for dogs that have severely injured a person or destroyed property.
The council sent the ordinance back to its legal department for rewording, but didn't specify how to change it.
''If it comes back, it will not be breed-specific, but it might not even come back,'' council President Ron Jacobs told a group of about two-dozen dog owners.
Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong, who worked with city attorney Donald Lunny in drafting the measure, conceded it ''could be interpreted'' as pit-bull specific, but said it is needed.
''The reality is that the driving factor here is the rising incidents in the city with pit bulls,'' she said.
Out of 27 dog-biting incidents registered by city police in the past 12 months, eight involved pit bulls.
The proposed measure would not have helped, pit bull owner Danielle Rodriguez said.
''The wrong people get them,'' Rodriguez said, referring to the dogs. ``That won't change just because they change the rules.''
Rodriguez said almost all such attacks are caused by animals that have been neglected or have not been neutered or spayed.
Owning a pit bull has been illegal in Miami-Dade County since 1989 because that county's ordinance predates state law.
The law would have classified these animals as dangerous and required their owners to muzzle them, to use leashes no longer than 6 feet, and to place them in pens.
State law, however, prohibits deeming a dog as dangerous based on its breed. The kinds of restrictions that were proposed by Plantation are reserved for dogs that have severely injured a person or destroyed property.
The council sent the ordinance back to its legal department for rewording, but didn't specify how to change it.
''If it comes back, it will not be breed-specific, but it might not even come back,'' council President Ron Jacobs told a group of about two-dozen dog owners.
Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong, who worked with city attorney Donald Lunny in drafting the measure, conceded it ''could be interpreted'' as pit-bull specific, but said it is needed.
''The reality is that the driving factor here is the rising incidents in the city with pit bulls,'' she said.
Out of 27 dog-biting incidents registered by city police in the past 12 months, eight involved pit bulls.
The proposed measure would not have helped, pit bull owner Danielle Rodriguez said.
''The wrong people get them,'' Rodriguez said, referring to the dogs. ``That won't change just because they change the rules.''
Rodriguez said almost all such attacks are caused by animals that have been neglected or have not been neutered or spayed.
Owning a pit bull has been illegal in Miami-Dade County since 1989 because that county's ordinance predates state law.