Provo seeks pit-bull answer

PROVO — A neighborhood's complaints of pit bulls running wild has prompted city officials to research remedies that could result in tighter restrictions for a dog breed with a bad rap.

City Council member Midge Johnson said she's been receiving a lot of complaints lately from a neighborhood in her district generally at 640 South 1000 East. Thus far, more than 20 neighbors have complained about pit bulls in the area, saying, "We can't walk our streets anymore."

"Those people are very concerned," Johnson said. "The dogs are running loose. They get out and everybody scatters."

In response to Johnson's reports, the City Council called in Dr. Vaughn Park, a veterinarian at Alpine Animal Hospital, to highlight possible courses of action at their work meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Park told City Council members pit bulls have a bad reputation because of their owners.

"Most dog problems are really not dog problems," he said, "They're people problems."

Park said he's met pit bull owners "who have the sweetest, nicest dogs you've ever seen." But there are also people who want the "Michael Vick image."

"There are some people that like the tough image so they get the pit bull," he said. "And, unfortunately, they train those dogs to be mean."

Police officers responded to 93 incidents of animal bites during the past two years — nine of which were attributed to pit bulls, said Provo Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Parker. Parker noted that three of those incidents happened in the Provost neighborhood.

The Centers for Disease Control, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States examined 20 years of dog-bite fatality research and found that pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers cause the most fatalities. However the report, completed in 2000, stated "enforcement of breed-specific ordinances raise constitutional and practical issues."

Park said there appears to be a pit bull bite problem because it's currently a popular, inexpensive breed to buy. A person can buy a pit bull for as little as $50, he said. If the number of German shepherds increased in a specific area, he said, so would reports of German shepherd-related bites.

In any case, Park said he recommends against the city creating any breed-specific ordinances, as other cities have done.

"Certainly, we would not talk about this if we were talking about people," he said. "You wouldn't think of banning a race of people from your city."