Aurora Closer To Banning Pit Bulls, 7 Other Breeds

Aurora Closer To Banning Pit Bulls, 7 Other Breeds

Colo. Aurora made another step toward banning pit bulls and other breeds from the city.

The Aurora City Council approved the ban at its first reading Monday night. The ban would give current owners a chance to keep their pets with restrictions.

As the city moved one step closer to banning the dogs, the Table Mountain Animal Shelter prepared for a huge influx of pit bulls.

Denver's ban led to 40 percent of the shelter's dogs being pit bulls. Some employees at the shelter believe pit bulls can be good dogs.

"We have a lot of pit bulls that pass our safety test which means they also pass our dog to dog test which means they would be a perfectly adoptable dog," said Nick Fisher from the Table Mountain Animal Center.

But Aurora lawmakers disagreed and added 7 other breeds to a potential dog ban list.

The other breeds include the dogo argentino, canary dog, presa mallorquin, tosa inu, cane corso, and fila brasilerio.

"These are large breeds that share many of the same traits. They were bred specifically for fighting," said Cheryl Conway, Aurora spokesperson. "Aggression is a very common characteristic in all of them."

The city admitted they haven't had any recent reports of attacks from some of the other breeds, but they said they're afraid that could change if pit bulls were the only dog on the list.

"We were warned by other municipalities and counties that have imposed bans that it's not unusual for them to have seen an increase in the number of these particular breeds," Conway said.

She also said they've already seen signs the other breeds were getting more popular.

Last month, Aurora didn't have any of the other breeds registered. This month, there were 56 reported.

City leaders said they are also seeing signs people are trying to get their pit bulls grandfathered in before the law becomes effective.

In August, they had 182 pit bulls registered with the city. Last week, the number jumped to 313.

Under the ban, breeds on the list who already live in the city could stay if the owners pay between $200 and $600 a year to register them.

Owners would also be required to buy $100,000 worth of liability insurance.

A second reading of the proposed law is scheduled for October 24th.

If the reading is approved, as expected, the ban would take affect in November