DEARBORN, Mich. – The City of Dearborn has strengthened its vicious dog ordinance in response to concerns following several recent incidents in which dogs seriously injured people in southeast Michigan.
The City is tackling the issue with a progressive approach, avoiding breed-specific restrictions and focusing on owners’ responsibility for their dogs’ behavior.
In addition to emphasizing that the City requires that dogs be kept on a leash whenever they are not on their owners’ property, the Dearborn City Council, at its Jan. 4 meeting, approved revisions to the Animals Chapter of the City Code.
Following a study session in December, officials developed a two-tier ordinance that is not breed-specific and implements measures that can help decrease instances of dog attacks or threats.
The tiers in the ordinance differentiate between two types of threatening animals — “dangerous dogs” and “vicious dogs” — and specify owner responsibilities in each case. Violations require specific steps to take place and there are penalties for non-compliance.
A dog is deemed “dangerous” if, when police investigate a reported attack or threat, it is found that the animal “behaves in a manner that a reasonable person would believe poses a serious and unjustified imminent threat,” according to ordinance language. Dogs can also be determined to be “dangerous” if they bite a person but do not cause serious injury.
Dogs deemed dangerous will be required to be evaluated by an expert, be spayed or neutered, and have an identification microchip implanted at the owner’s expense. The dog and owner must also go through training.
If it is found that an animal has caused serious physical injury or death to a person, it is deemed “vicious.” According to the ordinance, if a public safety officer “has reasonable cause to believe that a dog is vicious, he or she shall institute proceedings in the 19th District Court requesting the court to conduct a hearing on whether or not the dog should be declared vicious…”
Owners of vicious dogs face much steeper regulations and penalties for noncompliance. They must license the dog as vicious with the city, obtain insurance for the animal and confine the animal, and put up signage at their home or place of business.
It is also possible under the ordinance for the court to order vicious dogs to be euthanized.
The City Council had discussed updating the vicious dog ordinance to specify a ban on pit bulls, similar to what other cities have done. However, council members agreed with Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter that the dogs causing problems could be any breed.
As a further measure to deter dogs from becoming agitated, the council also approved an ordinance addressing tethering of animals. It requires that animals not be tied up for more than an hour at a time unattended, and for no more than three hours per day total.
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Reactions to the New Ordinance
Blogger Dustin May, writing in Oxygen Rich Environment stated in his article, Finally, a Common Sense Dog Ordinance: “Breed-specific legislation is both counterproductive and unenforceable. Singling out specific breeds blinds people to the facts that a) problem dogs are the result of problem owners and b) there are good dogs within all breeds and potentially bad dogs within any breed. I applaud Dearborn for taking this pragmatic, common sense approach to the ordinance.”
Of course the Dearborn City Council is nearly brain dead taking the advice of anyone in view of the simple fact that EVERYONE knows that pit bulls have been bred to a high state of aggression. Some small girl or little boy will die because of a pit bull attack in Dearborn and then what will their experts , “Friends of the Dearborn Animal Shelter,” have to say then? “Golly, I guess that wasn’t such a good idea, was it?” You do not have to be politically correct when it comes to DOGS. Wake up and protect the population. That is your primary obligation to the residents. Take the heat. Do what’s right.
You are a moron Axxel.