Last night, in a 3-2 vote, the Seward County Counsel voted to repeal the county's 20 year old breed ban.
Seward County is a small county (22,500 population) in southwestern Kansas (the county seat is Liberal) that originally passed a ban in 1991 that included a grandfather clause. In February, the counsel updated the law to remove the grandfather clause, acknowledging that any dog that would have been covered under the grandfather clause would have long since passed away.
Eliminating the clause brought attention to the law itself and last night, the repealed the whole thing.
An area citizen, Gerald Valentine (who has a bit of a questionable track record), noted that breed specific laws were not enforceable -- and noted several other area cities including Wellington, KS, Edwardsville, KS and Topeka, KS that have all repealed their breed bans.
This community will now work to build a new breed-neutral dangerous dog law. I highly recommend they take a look at the replacement law in Edwardsville as a base -- as it is a really good law that is very proactive in nature, yet allows appropriate due process for dog owners.
Congrats to the rational folks in Seward County who repealed the ordinance -- and best of luck as they work to replace it with a better, updated law.
Great to hear about Seward County!
Gerald Valentine actually called me and I told him the same thing his attorney told him - the DOGS were grandfathered - not him!
Valentine was proposing all sorts of horse nonsense to amend the ordinance, like allowing people to have pit bulls if they had X number of acres, their neighbors were X number of feet away, blah blah blah.
Hey - just repeal it! I told him about Edwardsville and Topeka. Heck, I don't think I knew about Wellsville!
I told Valentine I seemed to remember Liberal passing a pit bull ban in about 1991 and then right after that a young boy was killed by an Akita. He said I had a very good memory (I've been accused of that before!). A young boy was throwing something at an Akita inside a fence or shooting objects at the dog with a slingshot - the kid either fell inside the fence or went in there to retrieve something when the dog attacked.
Valentine said he knew the people that owned the dog. I believe he told me they were building or converting a structure to use as a rehab facility when the fatality occurred.
Posted by: kmk | April 05, 2011 at 05:04 PM
I hope and pray that one day Miami-Dade County Fl will follow in their footsteps and remove this ban against Pitbulls as well!
Posted by: Jessica | April 06, 2011 at 07:18 AM
well congrats to seward county for finally waking up and seeing all the trees in the forest. If texas is suceeeful in passing their bsl, I'm moving me and my pit to seward county. finally someone realizes that it's not the dog it's the upbringing and what provoked the behavior. breed neutral dangerous dog laws make more sence.
on a sad note BOOOO to Belfast Ireland for murdering a disabled little girl's dog just because of his looks.
Posted by: jean | April 06, 2011 at 03:22 PM
And now they're looking at putting BSL back on the books!
For some reason I can't find the link right now. I"ll post it when I find it.
Posted by: kmk | May 07, 2011 at 11:07 AM