By Zachary Kenitzer
The bark of the town this past week has been the most recent addition to the docket of the Metro Council: a new ordinance requiring owners to register, fence and muzzle their pit bulls and rottweilers. Since the Courier-Journal article hit the doorsteps of Louisvillians, e-mails and phone calls have flooded Metro Council offices. Already, with nothing in place but a proposal, the battle lines have been drawn.I do support this ordinance and feel that forcing dog owners to take responsibility for their animals is a terrific idea. Dogs may be “man’s best friend,” but often mistreatment and abuse turn these potentially friendly animals into vicious monsters. As a dog owner myself I see that most of the owners that abuse their animals are also the ones who do not register them properly with Animal Control. Through fines and possible jail time, the ordinance might just force those who refuse to control their animals to comply with the law and register their dogs, not to mention that it would protect against future attacks.The ordinance is not without errors, however. Since it is aimed specifically at rottweilers and pit bulls, it profiles these two breeds of dog unjustly – not all animals within these breeds are vicious. I feel a more broad approach would be favorable. Instead of classification by only breed, the Council should use some other criteria to judge the potential of danger. Why not set a weight limit for a “dangerous dog”? This would largely eliminate the specific breed profiling, and set up a system that would be unchallengable, unlike the system of appeals purposed – if you disagree with the classification of your animal, you could appeal to the director of Animal Control. A weight classification would work because, logically, heavier dogs have more muscle and are therefore stronger. Strength is related to the amount of injury that could be caused by an attack. This would be a much better criterion. And just because the ordinance should not profile by breed does not necessarily mean that it shouldn’t profile by dog group. The American Kennel Club categorizes dogs into different groups based on the traits of dogs (sporting, nonsporting, toy, etc.). The category of dogs that pit bulls and rottweilers fall into is the working group (various pinschers, boxers and Great Danes are also in this group). The ordinance should not just single out those two, but all dogs within the working group. Since most of the dogs inside of the working group are dogs that are used to protect people, livestock and land, they tend to be stronger than other dogs and have the ability to inflict more injury on a human than a toy poodle has. Even distinction by class broadens the range of potentially dangerous dogs, because just about any dog can become aggressive, but only large, strong and aggressive dogs can seriously hurt a human. No purposed ordinance is perfect, but thankfully every proposed ordinance is subjected to a committee and revised several times before a vote is taken. This ordinance will undoubtedly be changed and edited to better suit the needs of the community, dog owners and dog lovers included. Although this proposal has upset many people, I feel it is truly for the good of the community. You might believe that your pit bull or rottweiler is just a big puppy, but Louisvillians suffer if you are wrong.
