No More ‘Free Bite’ for Kentucky Dogs

Dogs will no longer get a “free bite” in Independence, Kentucky.

Officials in the northern Kentucky city put more teeth into the animal control ordinance this week by removing a provision that a dog couldn’t be declared vicious until after it bit someone.

The Kentucky Enquirer reported City Attorney Jed Deters said officers can now issue citations and the court will determine if the animal is vicious.

The new ordinance doesn’t specify any breed, but comes after complaints that pedestrians had taken to carrying sticks and, in one case, a gun because of two pit bull dogs that had run loose and had reportedly attacked people.

The reworked law also now bars people keeping exotic or wild animals. A baboon was removed from a home in Independence last month under a Kenton County law.