New Dangerous Dog Ordinance on Tomorrow's City Council Agenda

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Julie Hong

OMAHA (KPTM)- The city's dangerous dog ordinance heads to the Omaha city council. It'll be introduced at Tuesday's meeting.

The latest version of the proposal is more strict without calling for an all out pit bull ban. The proposal the council will see requires pit bull owners to muzzle and leash their dogs, have a secure fence and carry one-hundred thousand dollars of liability insurance. All great ideas in theory, but some question how it will all be enforced.

The new proposal packs a bigger bite to address the city's dangerous dogs. "It's a very comprehensive set of ordinances for a city to undertake," says Nebraska Humane Society spokeswoman Pam Wiese. A huge undertaking the Nebraska Humane Society will be ready to tackle if the law passes. "It's going to be more tracking, there's gonna be more paperwork it's gonna take more work on our part." Work that worries at least one councilman. "I think it's going to waste time and waste money and take us away from the real problems which is still owners who are not good owners and dogs that are potentially dangerous dogs," says Jim Suttle.

Still the Humane Society's Pam Wiese says there are good elements to the proposal. Elements that are part of Council Bluffs' pit bull ban. "Having insurance is a good idea, having the dog muzzled those are all parts of our ordinance," says Council Bluffs assistant city attorney, Don Bauermeister. He says micro chipping all pit bulls would also make sense, identifying and holding owners accountable. "In the case of a bad event do we have somebody to come up against," says Bauermeister. He says his city has had great success with a pit bull ban. He says there hasn't been a single pit bull bite yet this year in Council Bluffs.

And while Omaha's proposal does not address a ban, supporters say it's a workable compromise. "It's definitely proactive in terms of having people a.) be responsible pet owners and b.) catching those dogs that may have potential issues later on early enough to be able to change their behavior or muzzle them so they don't hurt the public," says Wiese.

City councilmen on both sides of the pit bull debate are expected to push for some changes to the mayor's plan to deal with potentially dangerous dogs. The public hearing will be on Tuesday, September 16th. This law would create a dangerous dog designation. If your dog falls into that category regardless of breed, the you'll be required to microchip your dog, have it spayed or neutered, they must be muzzled and leashed and both the dog and owner will be required to take classes.