Reminder: City’s new pit bull law takes effect Saturday

September 12, 2007 at 3:30p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN — Top city and Mahoning County officials say there won’t be a problem enforcing Youngstown’s tougher pit bull terrier law.

But it will probably be a few days after the law takes effect on Saturday.

Word has yet to trickle down to Michael Fox, the county’s dog warden.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and city Prosecutor Jay Macejko as well as county Commissioners John McNally IV and Anthony Traficanti said the city and county are in agreement about the enforcement.

The commissioners will sit down early next week with Fox to instruct him to follow the new city ordinance, Traficanti said.

Fox told The Vindicator last week that he had no intention of enforcing portions of the city’s pit bull law that exceed Ohio Revised Code.

Fox recently said he hasn’t been told anything different from county officials.

But “I work for the county commissioners...and if they told me to enforce a municipal ordinance I would,” Fox said.

McNally, a former Youngstown law director, said the county will cooperate fully with the city’s new pit bull law.

The Youngstown ordinance bans future ownership of pit bulls beginning Saturday. The ordinance, one of a small number of cities in the country with an outright ban on new pitbulls, has drawn a great deal of complaints from dog lovers in Youngstown, the Mahoning Valley and throughout the country.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.