As the Missouri state legislature moves away from dog breed bans, the Poplar Bluff Animal Control Board has opened discussions on whether to rescind the city’s pit bull ban in favor of a non-breed-specific aggressive animal ban.
“I do see this (anti-)breed specific legislation passing eventually, it was put in there several times. We have legislators that are really trying to get this through ... If that does happen, we’d like to have a jump start on maybe special requirements, or something of that nature,” said animal control officer Mark Hastings at the June 20 meeting.
The pit bull ban
The ban was put in place years ago to push back against dog fighting, explained city planner James Sisk, who added he was once bitten by a pit bull on the job.
“I was for when it was put in place because we had a bad dog fighting problem here in town that it targeted, and it worked. But I think just the way everything is going ... It’s coming down to discrimination,” he said.
Poplar Bluff’s city ordinances address both pit bulls and aggressive animals. In the case of aggressive canines, the dog is impounded at a vet’s office after its first bite to test for disease. Its case is presented to the animal control board, which looks at the circumstances surrounding the bite and its severity to determine if the dog is a “dangerous animal” needing to be destroyed or kept confined by the owner in the future.
Pit bulls and pit bull mixes are automatically classified by the city as “dangerous animals,” and those belonging to Poplar Bluff residents must be removed from city limits or euthanized within 10 days of being reported. Violators face a $500 fine or jail time.
Shortcomings
The ban has several shortcomings, according to the board, notably in enforcement. Most pit bulls found within Poplar Bluff live at residences outside city limits or come with owners visiting from out of town. Hastings estimated 98% of pit bulls animal control picks up and returns to their owners come from addresses outside city limits, and owners within city limits will leave their dogs unclaimed at the shelter to avoid the fine. Since pit bulls are ineligible for rabies vaccines and city tags in Poplar Bluff, finding these local owners is difficult. The shelter has to relocate abandoned dogs to other rescues to be adopted outside the city.
Even the definition of what constitutes a pit bull is complex. The American pit bull terrier is a recognized breed, but the name pit bull commonly refers to a group of terriers including Staffordshire terriers and American bulldogs. Poplar Bluff’s ban forbids all of them, but according to board member Rodney Reagan, it is hard to determine breed or breed mix without a DNA test. For example, cattle dogs and Dalmatians have similar jaw shapes to pit bulls.
Owners also get around the ban by registering their dogs as service or emotional support animals, which puts the city at liability if it tries to remove them. Reagan confirmed removing a tenant based on their service animal was a civil rights violation.
There are also owners with nonaggressive pit bulls who deeply love their pets. Sisk said he has experience with “respectable people” with “pit bulls that are great family pets” who hid their dogs. He described one family he was acquainted with as people who would not normally violate the law, but wanted to protect their dog. The family moved away several years ago.
Hastings also had experiences with good pit bull owners.
“There’s a lot of people that own pit bulls that are responsible, and then there’s a lot that’s not,” he said.
He also recalled the early days of the ban, which allowed pit bulls already present in Poplar Bluff to be registered rather than removed. He was surprised at the lack of bravado among owners, who were more interested in discussing their dogs’ individual traits.
“As far as the fighting and aggressive part, we really didn’t hear all that. That was kind of shocking to me,” he said.
Objections and liability
Landlord Greg West objected to loosening the ban, quoting statistics about attacks attributed to pit bulls from Dogsbite.org.
“I want to give you the basis of not just my opinion, but the facts, where they came from. And I would highly encourage each and every one of you to educate yourself on those facts, and where to get them, and how to get them,” he said.
Dogsbite.org is a nonprofit organization that pushes for breed-specific bans. Opponents of the website, including the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Dog Breeder’s Association, have criticized it for inaccurate and biased reporting.
West also raised the issue of municipal liability for dog attacks.
“If this were to be instituted, to change it to not be breed-specific, and you have an increase in bites, or even fatalities... it looks to me like that would open up a liability to the city,” he said.
The number of dog attacks attributed to pit bulls before the ban was not available at the meeting, officials said, since altering the ban was only in the first phases of discussion. Board Chairman Heather Cornman said the board would seek those reports.
Insurance companies have independent policies on pit bulls. Vice Chairman Eric Schalk said if any of his tenants owned a pit bull breed in violation of Schalk’s insurance policy, he could lose coverage. According to insurance agents he spoke to, some companies operate off a list of purportedly aggressive breeds, including Rhodesian ridgebacks, pit bulls and dobermans. Rather than rescinding the ban, he questioned whether expanding it to cover those breeds as well would be beneficial for insurance purposes.
Renee Lindley offered a counterpoint.
“I’m with an insurance company. We just changed ours to where it’s more dog-specific because the job that I do, I’ve been doing it 10 years, I’ve been bitten by two dogs and they were both chihuahuas,” she said.
She added her work has repeatedly brought her into contact with pit bulls and German shepherds, another purportedly aggressive breed, without incident.
Other factors
Code enforcement officer Daron House said before the ban, the shelter was filled with pit bulls abandoned by dog fighters after the dogs lost their aggression, and calls for pit bulls wandering loose were more common.
However, he believed Poplar Bluff’s dog fighting problem was only partially solved by the ban. The rest he credited to then-Police Chief Danny Whitely, who cracked down on dog fighting rings in tandem with the ban. House said perpetrators who did not relocate were incarcerated on charges related to drugs, violence and other crimes adjacent to dog fighting.
“That’s why I would like to say from being a formal animal control officer ... I don’t believe we can say this ban is solely responsible for getting rid of pit bull attacks,” he said. “So I understand what you’re saying, Mr. West, but going after the people that were creating this problem, I think that had just as much to do with it as the pit bull ban, just from having done the job.”
West also asked why the board wanted to change the pit bull ban if the aggressive dog ordinance would be unaffected by state legislation.
“I’m sure that we’ve already got codes if you’ve got an aggressive dog of any nature, if that’s already dealt with in the code ... why are you changing anything?” he asked.
Sisk responded, “To do away with the breed-specific (ban), because not all dogs are bad. I understand that the pit bull rate is higher. But that also doesn’t mean that every one of them was bred to fight. And ... there is a push to do away with the breed-specific bans because of that, because there are people that advocate for these dogs that were not bred to fight.”
Sisk advised the board to seek advice from other municipalities that did away with or altered their pit bull bans.
A full list of city ordinances can be found at poplarbluff-mo.gov.