In Johnson County, there are three cities that prohibit residents from owning a pit bull. Soon, that list could shrink.
Prairie Village City Council members voted Monday to review and re-evaluate the city’s specific breed ban ordinance in a future meeting after listening to requests from the public.
“There are a lot of misconceptions out there about breeds, luckily we are seeing the tide shifting,” said Beth Pauley of the Great Plains SPCA.
Pauley is in charge of legislation for the nonprofit. She has been working to encourage cities to drop specific breed bans and work towards breed equality. She said pit bulls, like Cheyenne in the picture above, make up a large majority of the shelter’s dogs.
“They enter our shelter more frequently than non-pit bull dogs and they stay here longer,” she said. "Daily, we are taking these dogs away from their families because animal control or law enforcement has deemed them to be a pit bull."
Nineteen states have passed laws prohibiting cities from enforcing specific breed dog bans. Some cities have slowly started to reverse some of their restrictions.
The city of Shawnee scrapped its pit bull ban a couple weeks ago. The city of Roeland Park lifted its 20-year ban in January, implementing animal ordinance revisions that focus on the behavior of animal owners and their pets rather than specific breeds.
“A lot of bad behavior in dogs, everyone knows, has to do with the owners or pet parents,” said Christine Gaughan, who lives in Overland Park.
Like Prairie Village, Overland Park also has an ordinance prohibiting pit bulls in city limits. The city of Lenexa also has a similar rule.
"All of these communities have different criteria with labeling their pit bulls or pit bull-type dogs. One dog may come to us labeled a pit bull and vice versa and another community may disagree with that,” said Pauley.
Prairie Village City Council will likely review and re-evaluate the ordinance after passing the budget.
City leaders told 41 Action News the city does not want to discriminate against dogs based on breeds but safety is its first priority.
------
Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
