May 5, 2009 1:30 pm US/Central
Highland Park Renews Push To Ban Pit Bulls
Push Comes After Attack On 14-Year-Old Girl
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) ―
The North Shore suburban city of Highland Park plans has renewed a push to ban pit bulls.
The assistant city manager in Highland Park confirmed to CBS 2 that the city is considering amendments to the ordinance that regulates dogs to enact a ban on pit bulls. This is anticipated to occur this month or next.
Highland Park Mayor Michael Belsky was prompted to call for the ban following the mauling of a 14-year-old girl,
the Chicago Tribune reported. The girl was bitten on the face and arms and required hundreds of stitches, the Tribune reported.
U.S. emergency rooms treated an estimated 310,000 people for dog bites in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The estimate has fallen fairly consistently since 2001, when an estimated 366,000 bite victims were treated.
However, many dog bites do not result in hospital visits and are not reported, so no state or federal agency has a total count.
There's also no reliable data on whether some dogs are more likely to bite than others. A 2000 study cited by the CDC and other health agencies reports pit bull-type dogs were responsible for more bite-related deaths than other breeds from 1979 to 1998, but it cautions that may mean pit bulls are just more common than other types of dogs.
Still, that may help explain why pit bulls are the most frequent targets of proposals to ban or restrict specific breeds of dogs. The American Kennel Club's government relations department reports 86 such proposals were introduced nationwide in the 2007-08 legislative season. Most were for municipal ordinances. It is not clear how many passed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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