Ark. Town Euthanizes 85 Pit Bulls Since Insurance Law Took Effect

Pine Bluff, Ark., officials have euthanized 85 pit bills since June 16, when a new ordinance took effect, requiring owners to obtain $100,000 insurance policies to cover dog attacks.

An additional 26 pit bulls have been banished from the city. Meanwhile, a handful of owners have insured their dogs.

“There’s grown men calling me, crying, saying ‘They’re about to kill my dog if I don’t find insurance,”’ said Mike Waymack, a broker with Best Quote Insurance Agency in Pine Bluff.

Besides carrying insurance, pit bull owners must register their dogs with the city, and have the animals spayed or neutered and marked with a tattoo ID. No one younger than 21 can handle a pit bull in public, according to the ordinance, and the animals cannot be chained in back yards.

The owner can be fined for violating the ordinance – and the pit bull can be euthanized.

Waymack said it costs about $500 or more annually to insure the pit bulls.

DeLoyd Cleveland, director of Pine Bluff’s Animal Control, said the city’s pit bull population had grown to more than 1,000 dogs.

“Pine Bluff has become a breeding ground and a manufactory for pit bulls,” he said. “There’s no doubt the ordinance will reduce the number of pit bulls here.”

North Little Rock also has a pit bull ordinance, which went into effect in 2004. Last year, the city seized 402 pit bulls and euthanized 321, said Animal Control Director Billy Grace.

Groups such as the American Kennel Club and the Humane Society of the United States oppose breed-specific bans, saying that once pit bulls are prohibited, the people who breed them will adopt a new dog – possibly a fighting breed, like the Dogue de Bordeaux or the Japanese Tosa.

Pine Bluff pit bull owner Larry Kirklin said he’s planning on complying with the ordinance so he can keep his pet, Dakota.

“We’ll have to comply,” Kirklin said. “But it’s sad that they picked out a certain breed of dog. We’re not going to get rid of her.”

Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, www.ardemgaz.com.