A Cincinnati council committee is finally ready to discuss proposals for dealing with an increasing number of uncontrolled dogs in the city.
The Law and Public Safety Committee will hear about three competing proposals in two weeks. But no votes will be taken.
Council Memeber Christopher Smitherman said one plan includes criminal penalties for owners if their dog attacks someone, another includes a fine for such offenses, and the final proposal sets up a task force.
“That could review kind of really all of our animal policies beyond vicious dogs with deer, with coyotes, any issue the city might have to address,” Smitherman said.
Smitherman said he has concerns with criminal penalties.
“Making sure, at least on my part, that the net isn’t throw to broadly that a citizen who has a dog that on an accident bites a person, doesn’t end up with a criminal record,” Smitherman said. “So we just have to sort that out to hear from our legal team about how that would be implemented.”
There were a couple of pitbull attacks in the city last summer including one involving a young child.
At one time there was a ban on pitbulls in the city, but it was repealed a couple of years ago.
