Commerce City – The City Council clamped a thick chain on pit bulls Monday night, placing severe restrictions on the dogs despite outcries from pit bull fans opposed to the plan.
Only about 25 people showed up at Monday night’s council meeting to protest the new restrictions, compared with hundreds that attended a public hearing last month.
“It’s biased; it’s discriminatory,” resident Jennifer Durbin said after the ordinance passed 8-0, with one abstention. “We had a public hearing, and they didn’t listen to what we had to say.”
The new ordinance doesn’t ban pit bulls outright. But, by prohibiting new pit bulls from coming into town, the ordinance numbers their days in the city.
Owners of pit bulls already in Commerce City will have to register their dogs and have them spayed or neutered and have a microchip implanted. They must keep them in specifically regulated enclosures, muzzle them in public and carry $100,000 worth of liability insurance in the event the animals attack someone.
“It’s just a backdoor ban,” said Tina Villani, a pit bull activist who lives in Brighton. “If the dog hasn’t done anything wrong, why should I have to pay for somebody else’s crime?”
Commerce City is just one of numerous cities across the state that have banned pit bulls or are wrestling with whether to do so. Denver, Castle Rock, Wiggins, Wellington and Fort Lupton have all banned the dogs. Aurora, which looked as if it might adopt a policy like Commerce City’s, is now weighing a total ban after recent attacks.
The next city to take up the issue may be Federal Heights. There were four instances in June and July of pit bull problems in the city of about 12,000.
Councilwoman Carol Wright floated the idea of tougher pit bull regulations at the council’s last study session. She said that since Denver banned pit bulls, she has noticed more of the dogs in Federal Heights.
Federal Heights staffers will present possible pit bull ordinances to the council in November, City Manager Chuck Reid said.
In Commerce City, Durbin, who owns a pit bull and bloodhound mix puppy, has until Nov. 1 to register her dog with the Police Department. She said she didn’t know what she would do.
“I’m going to wait to see how many hoops I have to jump through,” she said.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
