Rath vows to help pit bull owners fight vicious status
NEWARK – City Councilman Jeff Rath, R-3rd Ward, said he is willing to work with residents to introduce proposed legislation to remove pit bulls from vicious status under city law.
"If they want to meet with me and want to change legislation and want me to introduce legislation, I will," he said.
City law now automatically lists all pit bulls as vicious, even if they have never harmed anyone. That designation requires their owners to buy special insurance and expensive dog tags for their pets as well as microchip, muzzle and restrain them by tether, fence or enclosure.
State lawmakers dropped pit bulls from the vicious list in 2012 and declared dogs vicious only if they had attacked or killed a human or other animal.
About 50 people packed council chambers Monday night to ask the council's Safety Committee to follow the state's lead and eliminate breed-specific legislation in Newark. Some also claimed the city's animal control officer harassed them and made them feel like criminals.
Safety Committee Chairman Alex Rolletta, D-4th Ward, continuously reminded the group that all complaints should be submitted formally to city police through the Safety Department and said forms were on hand Monday for that purpose. Complaints about city employees should be handled administratively, he said, and not through the council.
Some residents said they feared retaliation if they were to file a complaint. Others said they had complained but heard no response.
The committee took no formal action Monday.
Rath said he has no timeline to act but does expect to meet with pit bull owners who want to pursue changing the law. He said he is all for eliminating breed-specific legislation but also favors strengthening penalties against irresponsible dog owners who allow their pets to hurt people.
Dayton attorney Tammy Nortman attended Monday's meeting to tell local dog owners they can challenge — through a court hearing — both the vicious status and pit bull designation. Nortman said she has successfully challenged a Reynoldsburg ordinance quite similar to Newark's law on both of those grounds.
Some local dog owners say their pets have been misidentified as pit bulls and yet have been held to those standards.
Nortman said she can help local pit bull owners but added: "I can't do it for free. No one has hired me yet."
Pit bull owner Tammy Mitchell, of East Channel Street, said she attended Monday's meeting in hopes of gathering support for changing the law but didn't know how to go about doing it.
Mitchell said one of her dogs is now exempt from pit bull restrictions through the good-citizenship exemption council created in late 2013. Her other dog will go through the behavior class to qualify for that exemption in May, she said.
Law Director Doug Sassen suggested the group's spokesperson needed "to find a sympathetic ear on council" who believes other council members also would support change.
"Until then, we're just talking," he said.
Although Rath did agree to help residents introduce legislation, he reminded them that it takes six votes to change city law.
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