Pit Bulls In Cincinnati

Cecil Thomas' changes to Cincinnati's pit bull ban are back on council's agenda for Wednesday - some of them, at least.



Interim solicitor Pat King sent out a revision of the ordinance that sparked some controversy this week. Dated today, it changes the things that SPCA Cincinnati CEO Harold Dates found objectionable, namely that the ordinance proposed to order the private, non-profit agency to confiscate pit bulls. Dates said his agency would continue to transport pit bulls, but only when the city ordered them confiscated.



So the new version says a police officer can remove any dog that is not properly confined or any that has attacked and severely injured a human. It also says any owner found to have harbored a vicious dog or a pit bull can voluntarily surrender the dog - but to the city, not to the SPCA.



Some council members tried to send last week's version back to committee for more discussion. It went to the council floor without much debate from the law committee, which didn't have a quorum last week. They also questioned why it hadn't been discussed by the full Vicious Dog Task Force, which council set up last year to study possible changes. Thomas said he'd whittled that task force because he wanted its work to be more community-driven.



The effort to send the issue back to committee failed, but Mayor Mark Mallory decided to hold the item a week to give everyone a chance to figure something out.