Council to lift ban on pitbulls for tenants (Dublin, Ireland)

[Rene Allegrini]

Focusing on owner education and enforcing local leashing laws is definitely a step in the right direction. Will this be the trend in the future?

Council to lift ban on pitbulls for tenants

DUBLIN City Council is to allow some of its tenants to keep so-called "dangerous" breeds of dogs, provided they are spayed and micro-chipped.
In a review of its ban on 10 breeds introduced last year, the council has decided to allow tenants to keep their pets provided they had them before the ban was introduced on July 1 last year.

Yesterday, the local authority said it had joined with charity Dogs Trust Ireland to provide neutering and micro-chipping of dogs free of charge for council tenants. But if owners do not avail of the service by September 30, the council will consider them to be in breach of their tenancy agreement and they could be evicted.

The ban on some dogs including pitbull terriers, bull mastiffs, dobermans and English bull terriers was introduced following a number of attacks.

Parks

The city council banned them from all council-owned property including public parks.

The council said it had decided to allow existing owners to keep their pets. However, tenants will not be allowed acquire the dogs in the future.

"In respect of the 10 restricted breeds of dog, we acknowledge that a number of our tenants are responsible dog owners and have built up a relationship with one of these breeds and would, understandably, be upset if they had to give their dog away or have it put down," Vincent Healy from the council's housing and residential services said.

"Accordingly we are happy to allow them to keep their dogs provided they agree to have them micro-chipped and neutered/spayed. "However, we remain steadfast in achieving our primary objective to ensure that our streets, parks, and council neighbourhoods are safe for people to walk and for children to play in.

"Where tenants persist in illegally keeping one of the 10 restricted breeds of dog in their home, the council will consider such action to be a breach of tenancy, will issue a notice to quit, and this could ultimately lead to eviction."

The restricted breeds are American pitbull terrier; Bull Mastiff; Doberman Pinscher; English bull terrier; German Shepherd; Japanese Akita; Japanese Tosa; Rhodesian Ridgeback; Rottweiler and Staffordshire bull terrier.

Meanwhile, the Dutch government says it will lift a long-standing ban on pitbulls because it did not lead to any decrease in bite incidents.

Instead, the country will focus on enforcing local leashing laws and owner education
programmes. In future, dogs that display aggression will be tested by an expert.

Council to lift ban on pitbulls for tenants - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie