Midwest City, OK: Court of Appeals says city can’t ban breeds

Previous alerts for Midwest City:
http://stopbsl.com/2009/07/21/midwest-city-ok-mwc-residents-fight-over-dog-ban/
http://stopbsl.com/2009/07/14/midwest-city-ok/

Although OK state law prohibits BSL, Midwest City is a home rule city. The question that will be brought to the OK Supreme Court is whether Midwest City, as a home rule city, can pass laws that conflict with state law.

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-mwc-dog-appeals-story,0,5439940.story

MWC dog appeals

Staff Writer
KFOR
4:23 PM CST, December 2, 2009

MIDWEST CITY, OK — A Midwest City couple is one step closer to keeping their dogs after a 2-Year battle with city officials. According to Jerry and Carol Stuckey, their trouble started when a city ordinance banned any breed of dog with the words “pit” or “bull” in their name. That means their bull terriers are not welcomed.

“It’s not the same dog and what’s sad is if they really wanted to protect the residence of Midwest City they would have written an ordinance that protected them from any breed of dog,” said Carol Stuckey.

Earlier this week the Oklahoma Court of Appeals agreed with Stuckeys and claim city officials can’t ban any breed of dog.

“It’s ridiculous to me that the City of Midwest City has spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to take away a Spud-Mackenzie type dog. These are not pit bulls these are little bull terriers. It’s absurd to me; I don’t even know why they’ve done all this,” said their attorney Scott Adams.

But officials from Midwest City say this fight is far from over and are taking their case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“We are giving the Supreme Court the opportunity to correct those discrepancies and to make it clear to all home rule charters cities in the entire state on what they can and cannot do,” said City Attorney Katherine Bollee

Officials from Midwest City have 30 days to officially file their appeal.