State: Pit Bulls No Longer Vicious By Default

Editor's note: This article has been edited to clarify that the letter Brian Powers wrote for the Lakewood Observer was in 2008.

Lawmakers in Columbus are moving forward on a bill that would de-classify pit bulls as “vicious animals” at the state level, but would not apply to local municipalities.

The Ohio Senate voted 27-5 Tuesday to repeal the breed-specific language in the Ohio Revised Code. The House of Representatives approved a version of the bill in June.

Under the new law, a dog can be labeled vicious only if it kills or causes serious harm to a person while unprovoked.

Kevin Butler, the 's law director, said Lakewood’s 2008 ordinance deeming all pit bulls and canary dogs as “dangerous animals” will likely stand.

“I don’t believe that merely removing pit bulls from the definition of vicious animals in the state code alone would affect our ordinance, because it doesn’t classify them as vicious animals,” he said. “Beyond that, I can’t comment because I haven’t seen the final version of the legislation.”

The House must approve the Senate’s version before the proposal can get sent to Gov. John Kasich’s desk, who has yet to indicate if he will sign it.

Lakewood's was introduced in 2008 by Councilman at-large Brian Powers, who did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

That same year, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the city of Toledo's ban on pit bulls was constitutional.

In a letter he penned to the Lakewood Observer in May of 2008, Powers said the ban was necessary because Lakewood had seen an "explosion" in the pitbull population.

"The experts understand that these dogs have been bred to fight and that a fight may break out suddenly and without warning," Powers wrote. "There is simply no place in Lakewood for these dangerous dogs."

Oponents of the ban argue breed-specific language is unfair because a bad dog usually stems from a bad owner.

For more coverage of Lakewood's pit bull ban, visit our pit bulls topics page.