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Girard council weighing arguments on pit bull ban
By Sarah Lehr
GIRARD
Animal-rights advocates donned hot pink T-shirts that read “No such thing as a bad breed” and descended upon a caucus session before Monday’s city council meeting.
Girard has an ordinance on the books banning pit bulls, which some say unfairly discriminates against dogs based on breed. Beverly Spicer, an administrator with animal-rights group Nitro’s Ohio Army and a Girard resident, joined many others in arguing that vicious dogs result from irresponsible owners, not specific breeds.
The audience was packed, and the conversation at times became heated, prompting city officials to call for order. Most spoke in favor of modifying the city’s ordinance so that it would ban vicious dogs, regardless of breed.
Steffen Baldwin, director of the Union County Humane Society, said 15 municipalities across the country have moved to what he calls “breed neutral” language. Girard’s pit bull-specific legislation is both outdated and unfair, he argued.
A lone dissenting voice came from a Girard resident who came armed with a poster board plastered with what she said were pictures of bloodied pit bull-attack victims. She teared up describing how a pack of unruly pit bulls had attacked, killed and “tore apart” her cats.
Girard’s anti-pit bull ordinance went into effect in 1987. By all accounts, it is rarely enforced, which prompted Councilman Larry Steiner, who identified himself as a dog lover, to ask what all the fuss is about.
“I myself believe in letting sleeping dogs lie,” he said, making a pun that may or not have been intentional.
Councilman Steve Brooks, who chairs the zoning committee, said council will review all sides of the issue and potentially amend its ordinance at a future meeting.
Canfield City Council is deliberating the same issue after an uproar in which it enforced its pit-bull ban, prompting a family to return its dog to the shelter from which they adopted it.
In other business, Girard council passed an ordinance to allow the mayor to negotiate a contract for the merger of Girard’s Health Department with the Trumbull County Health District. The consolidation would save the city under $50,000 and eliminate three city jobs, Mayor James Melfi said.
Additionally, council voted down drainage legislation that would have required downspouts and gutters for structures with roofs of 100 square feet or more. Brooks backed the legislation, saying he drafted it in consultation with Girard’s zoning director to match standards in other municipalities. Other council members dissented, arguing that the legislation would have burdened residents with unnecessary expense.