Aldermen Hear Pit Bull Argument for Third Time

The Mayor and Board of Aldermen heard arguments to repeal the ban on pit bull breeds of dogs for a third time at the regular city meeting on Tuesday, June 20. No action was taken at the meeting and the Board concluded that they may have to spend the money to poll city residents.

Several residents were in attendance and a number of people spoke to the Board asking for a change in the City’s pit bull ordinance. They contacted city staff claiming that banning one specific breed of dog is unfair.

Resident Pat Englant, who desires a repeal of the pit bull ordinance, spoke about his frustration regarding getting the ban eliminated. “Your excuse of not having an animal control officer has been corrected,” Englant stated. “You already have a dangerous dog ordinance in place. Your excuses are running out.”

Englant talked about two unofficial polls which were conducted through Facebook where the number of responses overwhelmingly indicated that residents thought Kearney should repeal the ordinance. He also mentioned that Kearney has a dangerous dog ordinance that covers all breeds.

Alderman Lehman stated he was in favor of repealing the ordinance citing friends who have pit bulls that are docile. He also said that any dog can be trained and raised to be mean. “I firmly believe that no matter what breed the dog is, they are either aggressive by the way they’re trained or by the way they’re handled, or they’re not aggressive by the way they’re trained.”

Other Aldermen were not as willing to remove the pit bull ban.

“I do believe that this dog, maybe not so much aggressive in its attack as much as aggressive when it does attack, of the damage that is done,” said Alderman Holt. “I would hate to change the rules and then have a child or even an older person who gets mauled and unfortunately passes away because at one time we did protect the citizens of Kearney, but then we changed it and now we aren’t protecting them.”

“I personally know two people who have been attacked by pit bulls,” stated Alderman Barger. “however what David [Lehman] said is probably true. It’s not the dog, it’s the owner. I would say 80% of emails I have received on this topic are not to repeal the ban.”

“I truly think we will have to spend the money and put this to a public vote,” said Alderman Spencer.

No action was taken on the repeal of the pit bull ordinance at the Alderman meeting on Tuesday and no other mention was made to put the repeal up for a public vote.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story