City hears pit bull concerns

Havre Daily News/ Nikki Carlson, file photo

Bare Paw Dog Obedience instructor Fran Buell, left, of Havre and Anita Wilke of RezQ Dogs in Dodson show children and adults to hold their ears and make a rock shape if an aggressive dog approaches them during a Dog Bite Prevention presentation in July 2007. A concerned citizen wants the Havre City Council to limit the number of pit bulls or other vicious animals.

You may not be able to keep a good dog down, but the residents of Havre who are interested in working on the city's vicious animal laws aren't really worried about the good dogs.

At Monday night's Havre City Council meeting, Geraldine Laux explained her concerns about the town's vicious animals and how the city protects people from them.

She requested a discussion of the law, most recently changed late last spring after a year-long debate over animal ordinances in general.

"I worry about my children at home, and it's really, really important to me, " Laux said. "We don't want it to get to where a child dies from a vicious animal attack before we do anything. "

She proposed an idea to the council she and her neighbors discussed, that a limit be placed on the number of vicious animals, such as pit bulls, that can live in one house.

"We all feel it would reasonable to have a two-animal limit, " she said.

The ordinance committee agreed to convene next Tuesday evening, Oct. 25 at 7 p. m. in the meeting room in the back of City Hall.

After the meeting Laux was talking with council members Andrew Brekke and Pam Hillery about where her concerns have recently come from.

Laux and Brekke discussed one particular house they were aware of that housed five pit bulls and had two incidents recently where the animals got vicious, one of those times attacking a young child of 4 or 5 years old.

Hillery, not familiar with that specific situation, was shocked and agreed something should be done.