WASHINGTON, La. (AP) – Washington police have started to enforce the town’s pit bull ordinance.
The Daily World reports (http://bit.ly/JpwDNt ) 17 pit bulls were turned over to the St. Landry Parish Animal Control after they were seized by Washington police on Monday.
Chief Ronelle Broussard said the dogs’ owners all were in violation of an ordinance regulating pit bulls.
“Letters were sent out and they had the pit bull ordinance and they had 30 days to comply,” Broussard said. “No one has complied with the ordinance. No one has made any attempt to comply with the ordinance. We didn’t enforce it after 30 days, I probably gave them about seven weeks.”
The ordinance requires, among other things, that owners of pit bulls have a 6- by 6-foot enclosed area with a covered top and a $100,000 insurance policy.
That insurance policy has been difficult to obtain, pit bull owners Charlene Reuben and alderwoman Mona Wilson said. Reuben’s two pit bulls were taken yesterday, as were Wilson’s children’s pit bulls.
“I’ve been doing research on the Internet, trying to find pit bull-friendly insurance companies. It’s very hard to find,” Wilson said. “We were in compliance of everything except the insurance.”
Reuben said she was in the process of working with her insurance company to get the insurance when her 2-year-old and 3-month-old pit bulls were taken Monday.
“We got caught up between a rock and a hard place, but I’m doing the best I can to get my dogs back and animal control and the town of Washington is working with me to get my dogs back,” she said.
“It wasn’t fair … they shouldn’t have targeted everybody, but, in the same breath, it was an act of God, because some of the dogs that were taken were in deplorable condition.”
Pit bull owners now have five days to comply with the ordinance or their dog will be euthanized, Broussard said.
“Most pits they took (Monday) were family pets. They weren’t vicious,” Wilson said. “People give pit bulls a bad rep. It’s the pit owners, not the pit bull.”
Broussard could not offer any advice about how pit bull owners could retrieve their dogs, because he only enforces laws and does not make them.
“I’m not going to enforce an ordinance and turn around and go against the ordinance. If any change needs to be made, I think the councilmen need to come up with a plan,” Broussard said.
“I would like to see all the pit bull owners get their dogs. I don’t have that authority.”
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Information from: The Daily World, http://www.dailyworld.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
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