Canfield city to reconsider pit bull ban

CANFIELD — After city officials enforced a ban on pit bulls, they now will revisit the legislation after area activists pointed out the ordinance is in violation of state law.

Canfield enacted its dog ordinance in 2010, in which vicious dogs were identified as “one that has inflicted severe injury without provocation, has been trained for dog fighting, is a dog commonly defined as a pit bull or has been used in the commission of a crime.”

That is in direct violation of legislation signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich in 2012, which removed pit bulls from the vicious list at birth. Now the vicious list is for dogs that have inflicted severe injury without provocation.

“My understanding is that I was going to talk to council at the next meeting [Sept. 9] about addressing this issue and see what they wanted to do,” said city attorney Mark Fortunato. “If [council] wants to redraft the ordinance to make it similar to the state code, that’s what they will do.”

He further said: “I think it’s time for council to reconsider that, and that’s what they indicated they wanted to do.”

For the complete story, read Tuesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com