Toledo City Council President Wants to review City's Dangerous Dog Law

December 31st marked Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon's last day as dog warden, and already, some changes look to be taking shape.

City Counicl President Joe McNamara has asked the Dog Warden oversight committee to examime the city's law regarding "vicious dogs", which he feels inappropriately singles out 'pit bulls' and overlooks bad behavior in other dogs.

The current Toledo laws is very strange in that it automatically declares all 'pit bulls' vicious, while gives them no mechanism for declaring  any other breed of dog as vicious, even if that dog is found guilty of attacking someone. The ordinance very much reflects the city and Skeldon's disproportionately high focus on 'pit bulls' and ignoring all other breeds when it comes to public safety -- even though 'pit bulls' only make up about 7% of the total dog bites in the Lucas County

"One of the issues that I have with the code is that not all dangerous dogs are 'pit bulls'," said McNamara. "I am cncerned that the law is not a best practice for regulation of dangerous dogs."

McNamara is right, of course. Ordinances that base a dog's "viciousness" based on how the dog looks vs its behavior definitely does not represent best practices in public safety legislation when it comes to dogs -- which is why every expert organization in the world of canine behavior is opposed to breed-specific policies. It is great to see Toledo looking at making progressive steps without their long-time dog-killing dog warden.

Comments

[Social Mange]

I trust that this oversight committee does not include Tina Skeldon-Wozniak and Pete Gerken.

[Brent]

Ha -- yes. The committee is not made up of any politicians -- mostly vets and rescuers. Meanwhile, Skeldon Wozniak and Gerken are commissioners in Lucas County, but have no power in the actual city of Toledo.

[Frances]

I looked it up and found that Ms. Skeldon-Wozniak's term is up in 2012. Let me know if she runs for re-election. I'll give money to her opponent. She should have recused herself from voting on her cousin's firing. From what I could find, you guys are stuck with Gerken until 2012, as well. I'll contribute money to getting rid of him as well.

[Brent]

Frances,

All three of the county commissioners have at least informally announced that they will not run for office in 2012 - so likely the citizens of Lucas County will be rid of both Skeldon-Wozniak and Pete Gerken at that time. Virtually all of the people who have shown interest in running in 2012 have said they were in favor of changing the rules for pit bulls in the shelter and allow them to be adopted out.