Iowa

[JonandMichelle]

For those who follow BSL, you know Iowa is being targeted BIG TIME right now, along with TN, MA, and OH. Here is the latest on Waterloo....

From Jodi Preis; Bless the Bullys:


Dangerous dog ordinance debated by Waterloo city leaders
By TIM JAMISON, Courier Staff Writer

WATERLOO --- Blame the owner. Blame the dog. But don't blame the breed.

That's the message Waterloo City Council members heard Tuesday as they began tinkering with the "dangerous dog" ordinance following several well publicized dog-on-dog attacks in recent months.

City Attorney Jim Walsh had drafted a proposed ordinance outlining a list of potentially dangerous dog breeds --- pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, wolf hybrids, chows, Doberman pinschers and others --- which would have to be registered as such to stay in the city limits. Owners would need to detail their ability to confine their pets and prove they had insurance to cover damage or injury the dogs may cause.

But Walsh acknowledged enforcement of the registration requirement would be hard to administer.

"There's not a real good consensus on what breeds of dog are the most dangerous," he said. "The registration route is difficult. The banning route is also difficult."

Meanwhile, officials with the Cedar Bend Humane Society, which operates animal control services for the city under contract, suggested a third route.

"Instead of determining it on breed, maybe we should base it on what the dog does," said Kristy Gardner, co-director of the agency. "One of the things we deal with over and over and over again is the responsibility of the owner."

Gardner and the other co-director, Karla Beckman, suggested requiring a dog that bites --- or perhaps is found running at large more than once --- be required to register with the city as a potentially dangerous dog, triggering the additional steps for the owners.

Gardner said the animal control operation currently lacked the work force and training required to license every dog of a suspect breed; and she said identifying mixed breeds would be onerous. She noted that Labrador retrievers accounted for the most dog bites in the city last year, largely because they are so common and not necessarily because they were dangerous.

Council members urged Humane Society officials to put suggestions in writing to be discussed at a future meeting.

A related measure designed to tighten up the ordinance related to dogs deemed dangerous based on a verified attack received a warmer reception.

"The existing ordinance we found to be rather cumbersome from recent experience," said Walsh, referring to a federal lawsuit filed by Russ Folkers based on language in the existing ordinance.

The proposed ordinance would not allow the owner of a dog to keep the animal during the appeal process for a dangerous dog citation, and the owner would be required to post a bond to cover the boarding costs for the animal pending that appeal. Owners choosing to remove a dangerous dog from the city --- rather than destroying it --- would need to post a plan of where it would be taken; dogs returning to the city would be destroyed immediately without appeal.

Mayor Tim Hurley supported those changes.

"We've got to clamp down and get tougher, and this is a good start," he said.

Council members set no timeline for when future discussions about the ordinance would take place.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.

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