Junction City Commissioners have removed the ban on pit bulls in the city. The vote Tuesday night was 3-2 with Ronna Larson, Pat Landes and Nate Butler voting yes, while Jeff Underhill and Tim Brown voted no.
Brown is a former police chief, and he referred to cases he saw people injured in pit bull attacks. "This has always been a public safety issue to me. If you fault me for that so be it. This has always been about public safety.
Underhill said he favored keeping the ban in place. "nothing against anybody in this room or 99.9% of the owners that have reached out to us and contacted us. " Larson said with the research that has been done by city officials and with restrictions put in place there is "still public safety in mind. "Landes said there is no legislation that lets any owner off the hook with whatever animal they may have. Landes added he respected both sides and the City could ease back into some of this ( with pit bulls ).
Butler noted that he had talked with many people and six months to one year ago he was against lifting the ban, but after doing research on the topic his mind altered had been altered and changed a bit. He said you have to look at the statistics, and when you look at the population and citizens of the community a specific ban ordinance was the problem.
There are restrictions including a limit of two pit bulls per owner or dwelling, a requirement to have the dog micro chipped, the dogs must be spayed or neutered, and the owner cannot have had a felony drug conviction.