Aurora Breed Ban Debate

The fight for and against pit bulls has been going on in Colorado for decades, starting with Denver’s breed ban that dates back to the mid-80s.

As of the date of this post, Aurora’s breed ban days might be over as city council has finally decided to hold a referendum on the issue. Hopefully soon our Aurora animal lawyers will not have to fight breed bans any more.

There are several other municipalities in Colorado with breed bans and not all of the bans are limited to pit bulls:

~Aurora Section: 14-75 Bans: pit bulls (Aurora formerly banned all fighting breeds)

~Broomfield Section: 6-24-010 Bans: wolf-dog hybrids

~Commerce City Section: 4-2011 Bans: pit bulls

~Fort Lupton Section: 7-241 Bans: pit bulls

~Lone Tree Section: 10-7-90 Bans all fighting breeds: pit bulls, American bulldogs, dogo argentinos, canary dogs, presa mallorquins, tosa inus, cane corsos and fila brasilairos

~Louisville Section: 6.12.60 and 6.12.150 Bans: pit bulls and wolf-dog hybrids

There are also further nuances to the different bans concerning “hybrid” animals, whether that be dogs OR cats. For example, in Denver, any animal with a drop of “wild” blood is considered “wild” and can be confiscated under Denver’s wild animal ordinance. Typically, most people think of these types of ordinances is limited to animals like tigers or lions, but it is possible it could be interpreted to confiscate your wolf-dog hybrid!

In 2012, Colorado executed a task force that found that there was no need for such bans on wolf-dogs because they are not more less likely to attack humans than any other large breed dog. And, so, at the time, there was no legislation specific to banning wolf-dogs. I would argue that this same logic could be applied to the current pit bull bans. Science does not support the ban, and neither does common sense.

Here is a link to the task force overview:

http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/colorado-task-force-found-no-need-for-wolfdog-ban#sthash.1estYee1.dpbs

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