Joined
·
8,946 Posts
The Elkader, Iowa city council is currently discussing making changes to their current animal control ordinance. Possible changes could include breed specific measures.
Please send you POLITE, RESPECTFUL and INFORMATIVE opposition to breed specific legislation to the city officials via City Hall and/or the City Administrator/Clerk (contact information is below).
City Hall
207 N. Main St.
P.O. Box 427
Elkader, IA 52043
(563)245-2098
Fax: (563)245-1033
[email protected]
Jennifer K. Cowsert
City Administrator/Clerk
[email protected]
Council to look at dog ordinance
By Duane Winn
Register Editor
The Elkader City Council will be taking another look at the city ordinance governing dog ownership at its next meeting.
Councilman Darryl Koehn said Monday that a concerned citizen approached him about the matter, prompted by a March 5 incident in Hopkinton in which three-year-old Vanessa Elizabeth Husmann was mauled to death in her backyard by two of her grandfather's Rottweilers.
Elkader doesn't have an ordinance in place that bars specific breeds, but it does contain a provision that makes it illegal for persons to keep dogs that, without provocation and while at-large, have attacked or bitten persons or domestic animals or fowl on two separate occasions within a one-year period. It also prohibits ownership of a dog that has bitten a person above the shoulders.
"Personally, I don't have a problem with (the current ordinance)," said Koehn, but he added that the City Council should be proactive on this issue.
Koehn told his fellow councilmen that three breeds - the Pit Bull, the Rottweiler and the Akita - commit 75 percent of the dangerous attacks on humans, according to his research.
Dr. Tom Johnson of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association said a yet unpublished study indicated that Labrador retrievers actually have the highest incidence of dog bite reports.
"That data is not adjusted for the very large number of Labs in the population but does point out that any dog can bite under the correct circumstances," Johnson said.
Councilman Rob Frieden asked Koehn point blank whether he was advocating a ban on these breeds. Koehn said that the ordinance may need to be "tweaked" in order to provide greater safety for residents, either by implementing stricter leashing or kenneling requirements. Another possible strategy, Koehn said, is to require the owners of these breeds to register them with city hall.
Some cities require that a vicious dog have a microchip inserted and be either spayed or neutered.
Clayton County Register
Please send you POLITE, RESPECTFUL and INFORMATIVE opposition to breed specific legislation to the city officials via City Hall and/or the City Administrator/Clerk (contact information is below).
City Hall
207 N. Main St.
P.O. Box 427
Elkader, IA 52043
(563)245-2098
Fax: (563)245-1033
[email protected]
Jennifer K. Cowsert
City Administrator/Clerk
[email protected]
Council to look at dog ordinance
By Duane Winn
Register Editor
The Elkader City Council will be taking another look at the city ordinance governing dog ownership at its next meeting.
Councilman Darryl Koehn said Monday that a concerned citizen approached him about the matter, prompted by a March 5 incident in Hopkinton in which three-year-old Vanessa Elizabeth Husmann was mauled to death in her backyard by two of her grandfather's Rottweilers.
Elkader doesn't have an ordinance in place that bars specific breeds, but it does contain a provision that makes it illegal for persons to keep dogs that, without provocation and while at-large, have attacked or bitten persons or domestic animals or fowl on two separate occasions within a one-year period. It also prohibits ownership of a dog that has bitten a person above the shoulders.
"Personally, I don't have a problem with (the current ordinance)," said Koehn, but he added that the City Council should be proactive on this issue.
Koehn told his fellow councilmen that three breeds - the Pit Bull, the Rottweiler and the Akita - commit 75 percent of the dangerous attacks on humans, according to his research.
Dr. Tom Johnson of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association said a yet unpublished study indicated that Labrador retrievers actually have the highest incidence of dog bite reports.
"That data is not adjusted for the very large number of Labs in the population but does point out that any dog can bite under the correct circumstances," Johnson said.
Councilman Rob Frieden asked Koehn point blank whether he was advocating a ban on these breeds. Koehn said that the ordinance may need to be "tweaked" in order to provide greater safety for residents, either by implementing stricter leashing or kenneling requirements. Another possible strategy, Koehn said, is to require the owners of these breeds to register them with city hall.
Some cities require that a vicious dog have a microchip inserted and be either spayed or neutered.
Clayton County Register
