Most towns ban vicious dog behavior, not breeds

While the Hopkinton City Council considers adding Rottweilers to its list of outlawed dogs, most other Iowa cities have been reluctant to adopt breed-specific dangerous or vicious animal ordinances.

The tendency has been to focus on the behavior of individual animals rather than outlawing specific breeds, said Patrick Callahan, a municipal consultant with Snyder and Associates of Cedar Rapids.

“Not many outright bans are operative in Iowa, because there is so much opposition from responsible pet owners and because they are expensive and time-consuming to enforce,” said Tom Colvin, executive director of the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

When cities have adopted breed-specific ordinances, they have often been motivated by well-publicized attacks on humans, such as the March 5 death of 3-year-old Vanessa Hussman of Hopkinton, who was killed by her grandparents' pair of Rottweilers.

The Hopkinton City Council at its March 7 meeting discussed amending its ordinance, which already outlaws pit bull-type dogs, to include Rottweilers. No action was taken.

Hiawatha had a pit bull ban but repealed it last year after some council members researched the issue and determined that the ban might not withstand a legal challenge, said Mayor Tom Theis.

While Marion does not have a breed-specific ordinance, it can, based on a specific dog's behavior, declare it a dangerous animal subject to restrictions, said City Manager Lon Pluckhahn.

Breed-specific laws are comparable to racial profiling in law enforcement, said Misha Goodman, director of the Iowa City/Coralville Animal Care and Adoption Center.

Goodman said she favors animal control ordinances, like those in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, that focus on the behavior of specific animals, subjecting them to enforcement only if they bite or attack people or domestic animals without cause or justification.

Diane Webber, program manager at Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control, said she believes the city's behavior-based ordinance works well to protect residents' safety.

Goodman said cities with breed restrictions typically see no decline in the number of dog bites.

Officials in Ottumwa, who are pleased with their 2003 ban of pit bulls, would dispute that assertion.

In the 30 months before the 2003 ban, Ottumwa police recorded 18 pit bull attacks on people, said Police Chief Jim Clark. None has been recorded since the ban, he said.

Those 18 recorded pit bull attacks included the death of 21-month-old Charlee Shepherd, as well as “severe injuries to people ranging from neighbors to postal carriers to people just walking on the sidewalks,” Clark said.

The city successfully defended its law against a court challenge filed by the American Canine Foundation, Clark said.

“We were able to show our law was not arbitrary by documenting pit bull attacks in our community only,” he said.