Flora, Illinois: Man wants breed ban

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=191983&catid=3

Man whose mom was killed by pit bull wants to ban breed

Kevin Held
Date last updated: 12/16/2009 8:12:43 PM

KSDK — Bob Koehler’s front yard sign is a conversation starter. It reads: “Ban Pit Bulls.”

“I’m going to be very vocal about it, I don’t care who likes it or who don’t,” Koehler said.

Koehler’s mother, 85-year-old Rosie Humphreys, was killed last month by a neighbor’s pit bull. She was outside of her house walking her two poodles when she was attacked. Less than two weeks after his mother died, Koehler put the sign in his yard.

His goal is to have no pit bulls in the city of Flora.

“I don’t want them in with people, mingling with people,” he said.

Even if the city of Flora wanted to ban pit bulls, it could not. An Illinois law prohibits municipalities from targeting a specific breed.

Ledy VanKavage with Best Friends Animal Society specializes in animal control law and owns several pit bulls. She says banning the breed is not the answer.

“Simply because it doesn’t work and it is expensive,” VanKavage said.

She says hundreds of municipalities in the U.S. have laws that ban pit bulls. VanKavage says many cities have discovered it’s difficult and costly to enforce. Part of that cost that falls on local governments, is proving the dog is a pit bull mix.

If a dog owner argues that the dog is not a pit bull, the municipality has to pay for DNA Testing.

“Fiscally it doesn’t work, and with DNA, it is a whole new ball game,” VanKavage said.

VanKavage says If Illinois was to ban pit bulls it would cost the state $18 million. Missouri has fewer pit bulls. VanKavage says if it was to ban the breed it would cost $8 million.

Koehler has started a petition to try and get the current law changed.

KSDK