Louisville, KY - Judge strikes down dangerous dog ordinance (2 articles)

[Rene Allegrini]

Dog law overturned; open meetings violation cited
The Courier-Journal

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has struck down Louisville’s controversial dog ordinance, ruling that members of the Louisville Metro Council violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by discussing the proposed ordinance without properly notifying the public.

Judge Martin McDonald found that council members did not post notice of a Dec. 19, 2006, caucus meeting and only sent out an e-mail about the location of the meeting three hours in advance to other members of the caucus.

McDonald also said there is no evidence the council notified the media of the meeting or its location, though at least one member of the media was present.

The media and public “did not have access to the meeting,” McDonald ruled yesterday in a lawsuit filed last year by the Louisville Kennel Club and the League of Kentucky Sportsmen asking that the ordinance be voided and they be awarded legal fees.

The Metro Council argued that in April 2007, an amended dog ordinance was passed properly, making the prior open meetings act violations moot, but McDonald ruled that without the initial meeting, the “council would have had nothing to amend.…”

The council also argued, according to McDonald’s ruling, that the April 2007 meeting demonstrated there was solid community support for the ordinance. If that’s true, McDonald wrote, the council “should have no trouble passing a similar ordinance in the future — properly.”

The judge added that the council’s initial problems with passing the ordinance may indicate “this is simply not a law that the participating public supports.”

McDonald did not fine the city or award attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs in his ruling, noting that caucus members did not appear to willfully violate the open meetings act.

The ordinance significantly increases license fees for animals deemed to be dangerous or potentially dangerous and restricts how dogs that have not been spayed or neutered can be kept.

The ordinance was debated for more than a year after two fatal attacks — one on a 2-year-old girl, the other on an elderly man. It originally was to be a ban on pit bulls and Rottweilers, two breeds that some people say are inherently aggressive.

Eventually, the council dropped the idea of bans on specific breeds, opting instead for higher license fees for dogs that have not been spayed or neutered, and dictating that any sexually unaltered dog must be kept on a four-foot leash whenever it is off the owner’s property.

For more on this story, read tomorrow's Courier-Journal.

Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 582-4727.

Dog law overturned; open meetings violation cited




Judge strikes down city's dangerous dog ordinance

Posted: Feb 27, 2008 11:27 AM CST

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- The controversial dangerous dog ordinance in Louisville has been struck down by Judge Martin McDonald early Wednesday morning.

A federal lawsuit challenged the ordinance saying the current law is too vague and gives the director of the animal services too much power. A metro council spokesperson tells us they are in the process of trying to find out what this means.

If you'd like to read the animal ordinance in its entirety, visit LouisvilleKy.gov - I Want To - Find Most Requested Ordinances,
then click on Animal Ordinance Part 1 and Part 2.

We will continue to follow these developments and bring you more tonight on WAVE 3 News at 5.

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