Category Archives: Arkansas

Residents and locals, please continue to work respectfully with city officials to find a compromise that is breed-neutral. The next city council meeting will be June 12.

City of West Fork, Arkansas, P.O. Box 339, West Fork, AR 72774
Phone: (479) 839-2342
Fax: (479) 839-3335
Email: city@westforkar.gov (may not work–better to fax)

All alerts for West Fork: http://stopbsl.org/?s=west+fork

Possible Pit Bull Ban in West Fork Sparks Community Reaction

By: Marissa Stevens

Updated: May 8, 2012

A possible ban on pit bulls in West Fork had a lot of people talking during Tuesday night’s meeting.

The West Fork City Council wanted to hear what residents had to say and they definitely heard some very strong opinions. [...]

Not a single resident was in favor of the breed-specific ban at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Instead, they want to see harsher punishments for irresponsible owners.

“They just need to start ticketing people and enforcing the fines on any dog at large, whether it’s a yorkie or a pit bull, to me it makes no difference,’ said Jacqueline Dunn. [...]

City officials said they will work with residents and hopefully come up with a compromise that makes all dog owners happy. [...]

Full article retrieved 5/9/12 from http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=330242

Many thanks to Mona for putting this on our radar.

West Fork, AR, is experiencing growing pains. They’re growing, they lack animal ordinances, and they have only one part-time animal control officer.

The city council has come up with some proposed animal control ordinances. One of the provisions is a “pit bull” ban with a grandfather clause. Current residents can keep their “pit bulls” as long as they register the dog by the date of the ordinance’s passage. No new or unregistered ”pit bulls” will be allowed.

The council added the “pit bull” ban to the proposed ordinances because they are having new problems with “pit bulls” running loose and with people not registering their “pit bulls” (as is currently required for all dog owners). The irony here is that, according to the mayor, West Fork’s ”pit bull” problem is partly due to neighboring communities banning the dogs. So… what is West Fork council doing to solve the problem? Banning the dogs and passing the problem on to one of its neighbors. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: breed bans and BSL don’t make communities safer, because these laws don’t hold bad dog owners responsible—BSL just pushes the problem around.

The city will hold a public hearing on the animal ordinances, including the “pit bull” ban, on May 8 from 6:00 to 6:30 at City Administration building, 262 Main Street, West Fork (across from the Little O’ Oprey).

IMPORTANT: The mayor and council are aware that the “pit bull” ban is the most contentious of the proposed ordinances. The mayor understands the concerns about the breed ban and has advised us that the council is looking for SOLUTIONS. And they can’t solve anything if all they get are angry objections. We agree.

If you attend the council meeting on May 8, please come prepared to speak concisely and informatively. BE HELPFUL. Briefly state your objection to the breed ban, and then provide a good breed-neutral alternative dog ordinance or some pointers for the council to improve the ordinance. All dog owners should be held to the same standards, regardless of what their dog looks like.