Mar 23, 2006 2:56 pm US/Central
Elgin Moving Toward Pit Bull Ban
ELGIN, Ill. (STNG) ―
More than four months after a high-profile incident in which three pit bulls attacked and injured six people in Cary, the Elgin City Council seems to be moving toward banning the breed.
Councilman Robert Gilliam asked city staff to look into a ban at Wednesday night's council meeting. City Manager Femi Folarin said the city's legal department was one step ahead of him and has been working on drafting an ordinance.
The issue came up at a previous meeting, shortly after the attacks in Cary, in which two children were seriously hurt after they knocked on the dogs' owner's door and the animals burst out. The dogs, which police eventually were forced to shoot, nearly bit off their owner's thumb as he tried to hold them back. One of the children knew the dogs and had often played with them, and the owner said the animals had never attacked anyone before.
The city's corporation counsel, William Cogley, said he and others have discussed an ordinance that would allow current pit bull owners to keep their pets so long as they register them with the city. But no new pit bulls would be allowed. Existing pit bulls would be issued tags and possibly would be required to have a microchip implanted under their skin to allow authorities to determine whether a particular dog was registered or not.
Owners of unregistered pit bulls could be fined or have their animals taken away.
A majority of council members said they supported the idea of a ban, with several noting that pit bulls are common in the city. Mayor Ed Schock and Councilman Juan Figueroa both said a ban is something the city should investigate.
Attempts to ban pit bulls have run up against opposition from admirers of the breed. On Wednesday, Gertrude McClain, executive director of Bethesda Community Development Center in Elgin, asked council members not to institute a ban and to carefully define what is and is not a pit bull.
McClain said she thinks supporters of a ban unfairly are demonizing pit bulls and that it is often people who are to blame for a dog's behavior. "I believe it's not the dog itself, it's the owner," she said.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2006. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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