Skip to footer

Ohio removes pit bulls from 'vicious' dogs list

Ohio state law labeled specific breeds, such as pit bulls, as 'vicious.' Now the law defines a dangerous dog based on behavior not breed.

|
AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Michelle Pemberton
Zeus, a three year old pit bull lab mix gets some time outside in the dog run of Animal Care and Control in Indianapolis. (
  • By Associated Press

| Columbus, Ohio

 Pit bulls will no longer be labeled as "vicious" dogs under a new Ohio law.

The measure that took effect Tuesday changes current law that defines a vicious dog as one that has seriously hurt or killed a person, killed another dog or is among those commonly known as pit bulls. The new measure removes the reference to pit bulls from the definition and requires evidence to prove pit bulls are actually vicious.

Ohio has been the only state to classify a dog as "vicious" by breed and appearance, according to Newsnet5.com in Ohio.

RECOMMENDED: How well do you know your dog breeds? Take the quiz

Supporters of the law claim it will improve the ability of dog wardens and police to protect the public from all dangerous dogs, regardless of their breed. 

While the state labeling of dangerous dogs by breed has been lifted, some Ohio communities continue to have bans on pit bull ownership.

Gov. John Kasich signed the state measure in February.

Some dog wardens opposed it because of frequent pit bull attacks. Others have said pit bulls are not inherently vicious.

The measure takes effect less than a week after a 3-day-old baby was killed in northwest Ohio by what a dog warden described as a pit bull mix.

It also comes two days after a 49-year-old woman was attacked by a pack of stray dogs at her trailer park near Georgetown in north Mobile County, Alabama.

Mobile County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Joe Mahoney tells the Press-Register  the unidentified woman was taken to a local hospital for facial and body lacerations.

The Sunday morning attack involved a pack of five dogs that had occasionally been fed by other residents of the trailer park, according to Mahoney. He said trailer park residents told deputies the dogs appeared to be docile in the past.

Mobile County Animal Control officers took the dogs and they are in the county animal shelter, Mahoney said. He described them as mixed-breed pit bull and chow dogs.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

RECOMMENDED: How well do you know your dog breeds? Take the quiz

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Ohio removes pit bulls from 'vicious' dogs list
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0522/Ohio-removes-pit-bulls-from-vicious-dogs-list
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe