BUENA VISTA -- Update: June 20th, 9:20 a.m.
NBC25 is planning on attending Monday night's Saginaw City Council meeting. Do you think the "Dangerous Dog Ordinance" will pass?
Update: June 17th, 12:35 p.m.
The Saginaw City Council will vote on the "Dangerous Dog Ordinance" during their meeting Monday, June 20th at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at City Hall.
The city of Saginaw may soon vote on an ordinance that would require dog owners of so-called dangerous breeds, to register their pets with the city for a one time fee of twenty dollars. The dogs would also have to be leashed, held in a kennel or fenced in.
But some say that ordinance could create problems for Saginaw’s neighboring cities like Buena Vista Township.
“In Buena Vista, we have urban and rural. We suspect they are taking these dogs out to the rural parts of Buena Vista and just letting them go so they can get away from these fines and other stuff,” Chief Brian Booker of Buena Vista Township said Thursday.
And the dumping may have already begun. On Wednesday, police say they had to take action and kill two stray pit bulls found in the area.
“We had two pit bulls, vicious, and malnourished, you could see their ribs. They were hungry. They were not from that area. None of the neighbors had seen them before. One neighbor said he had seen them a mile down the street and there were some kids playing, riding their bikes in the area.”
So what breeds are considered dangerous? The top five are Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, BullMastiffs, and Alaskan Malamutes.
Chief Booker says just dropping these dogs somewhere to avoid the fee, is not an option. "If you don't want your pit bull anymore, can't handle it, you don't want to pay the fine, registration and insurance, then take it to animal control. $15, they will put your pit bull down,” Chief Booker stated.
If you were a “dangerous dog” owner, and your area was going to implement a “Dangerous Dog Ordinance,” would you put down your pet?
*This story was written by NBC25's Cheri Hardmon.
