Saginaw, MI: Proposed animal ordinance still under revision

The text of the proposed ordinance is not yet publicly available. This was a breed-specific proposal, and based on the description of “dog types” given below, it probably hasn’t gotten any better—but having the official text will be helpful, and you can count on seeing it here, when I am able to get it.

All alerts for Saginaw: http://stopbsl.com/?s=saginaw

‘Dangerous dogs’ ordinance proposal still evolving, officials say

Published: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 10:01 AM
By Justin L. Engel | The Saginaw News

SAGINAW — […] Since The Saginaw News reported about an early version of the proposal, officials say the document has been modified, eliminating some elements while adding others. A City Council vote is likely weeks away.[…]

City Councilman Daniel Fitzpatrick, a member of the ordinance-drafting committee, said the group could submit a copy of the law to the council before its Monday meeting, but there likely won’t be a vote until after March.[…]

Saginaw’s language could point to the CDC list — and others like it — as a way to determine which dogs qualify as “dangerous,” but won’t list dog breeds, Fitzpatrick said.

The law instead will identify which animals are considered dangerous based on “dog types rather than dog breeds,” Fitzpatrick said.

For example, the city could consider dogs dangerous if they have “man-stopping power,” “the ability to do grievous injury with biting and tearing power” or possess the strength to “lock its jaws” during an attack, Fitzpatrick said.

“That will be more palatable for some people,” he said. “We want to, as much as possible, be more generic in our language instead of being so breed-specific. It will be self-explanatory.”[…]

[…] Fitzpatrick said he understands the concerns of the dog-loving community but wants to protect residents from the sorts of dog-mauling incidents that have made headlines in recent years.

“No matter what gets said — ‘Well, my dog has these traits but it would never …’ — well, you can’t say, ‘it would never,’ ” he said. “There has been so much documented proof that dogs like that will attack members of their own family for no provocation.”

Fitzpatrick said he owns a German shepherd/husky mix that would require him to abide by the ordinance.[…]

Full article retrieved 2/17/11 from http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/02/dangerous_dogs_ordinance_propo.html