Banning pit bulls in Michigan?

If one Michigan legislator had his way, this little guy wouldn't be allowed to cross the border to Michigan.

Last week's village council meeting touched on, among several other issues, the village's dog ordinance. The issue came up when several residents, including Planning Commission Chairman Ron Milkey, approached the council after a neighbor's dog had gotten loose and attacked a family pet, killing it.

Current village ordinance states that a dog that has been found to be dangerous, but does not cause any harm to anyone or anything, can be returned to it's owner, so long as a few precautions are taken.

More discussion is scheduled to take place at the next council meeting, which is at 7 p.m. June 20 in the village chambers of the village hall.

Some discussion, triggered mostly by Trustee James Dzengeleski, revolved around banning specific breeds in the village altogether, namely pit bulls. That discussion was seemingly shot down quickly by other trustees, saying it was illogical to approve an ordinance like that.

Several other communities has taken measures against the dogs, including the City of Saginaw, which recently began working to ban certain breeds in the mid-Michigan city.

But a recent lawmaker in Michigan from Grosse Pointe may change this discussion completely. Although currently tabled, State Rep. Tim Bledsoe, a Democrat, recently introduced legislation that would eventually ban pit bulls from the State of Michigan.

Several dog groups and bloggers, including our sister paper The Oakland Press' Karen Workman, opposed this law, saying banning a specific breed of dog isn't fair. A big argument is that breeds aren't naturally vicious, but rather are trained to become vicious.

The law's been tabled, which means very little action will be taken soon. But judging by the response online, it doesn't look like there's a lot of support for the bill.

My two cents: I'm not a dog person at all; I've grown up around a cat my whole life (even though sometimes, my previous cat thought he was a dog. He did the usual stuff, play fetch, etc), so I'm not the most qualified to speak.

However, when I worked in Bay City this past fall, I lived next door to a woman who owned a little puppy pit bull. He was a nice little dog, and he grew fast. Never once was I worried that he might suddenly attack when he was out; the only thing I couldn't stand about him was the constant howling early in the morning, which I assume was because he was lonely. It did help change the perception of pit bulls, and showed that they can be good dogs, as long as they're trained properly.