At its meeting on March 7, council voted to include a new designation–“potentially dangerous”—to the existing ordinance that already allows public safety to deem a particular dog as “dangerous.”
In order to be considered “dangerous,” the city has to show that a dog has “without provocation, inflicted substantial bodily harm on a human being on public or private property,” has “killed a domestic animal without provocation while off the owner’s property,” and “been found to be potentially dangerous, and after the owner has notice that the dog is potentially dangerous, the dog aggressively bites, attacks, or endangers the safety of humans or domestic animals.” (sic)
Now, with the amendment, the city can deem a dog as “potentially dangerous” if “when unprovoked, (it) inflicts bites on a human or domestic animal on public or private property,” and “when unprovoked, chases or approaches a person, including a person on a bicycle, upon the streets, sidewalks, or any public or private property, other than the dog owner’s property, in an apparent attitude of attack,” or “has a known propensity , tendency, or disposition to attack unprovoked, causing injury or otherwise threatening the safety of humans or domestic animals.”
The full text of the ordinance is here.
Not all council members agreed with police representatives who spoke at the meeting that the newer designation was necessary.
“You can’t sit a dog down and ask it what its attitude is,” commented Ward 2 Council Member Jess Robertson. “There (is) just some gray area by me—to call something ‘potentially dangerous.’ We could all be potentially anything.”
Other council members saw it as necessary, including one councilman, Dick Swanson of Ward 1, who himself has raised and shown dogs at competition.
“Dogs can be very dangerous,” said Swanson. “They can turn, and I’m in full support of this amendment. I think it’s necessary, and the owners have to take full responsibility.”
The vote was for second reading and now the new language will become part of the city’s ordinance.
