Aurora voters in Tuesday’s election chose to allow ownership of certain types of pit bulls, a long-running issue in Colorado’s third-largest city.
Incomplete returns showed that about 53% of votes favored a measure to repeal the current ban, with about 47% opposed.
ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election
Aurora’s City Council in July passed a resolution adding Question 3A to voters’ ballots. It asked residents to decide whether to repeal an existing breed ban. The “yes” vote will allow Aurora residents to own American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and American Staffordshire Bull Terriers.
Three years ago, the council made these types of pit bulls legal within city limits. But a resident fought the legalization in court, arguing that only voters could overturn a ban that had been in place for nearly two decades. A judge ruled in March that only voters, who in 2014 had kept Aurora’s ban in place, could change it.
Most municipalities in Colorado allow pit bulls, which have been implicated in attacks on people over the years. In 2005, three pit bulls mauled a 10-year-old boy in an Aurora backyard. The dogs bit his face and he lost his left arm.
Pit bulls have the size and strength to hurt humans and sometimes are poorly socialized. They’re commonly used for illegal dogfighting. But pit bulls raised well typically aren’t more likely to attack humans than other types of dogs.
