Community Corner

Anti-Dog-Ban Bill Passes Connecticut House

The proposal would block towns from passing breed-specific dog bans in their communities.


This story was written and reported by Associate Regional Editor Eileen McNamara.

The Connecticut House has approved a bill that would block towns and cities from enacting breed-specific bans on dogs. 

The House this week approved the measure, submitted by Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, that says municipalities can’t single out any particular breed as dangerous and illegal to own. The House voted overwhelmingly, 142-0, to pass the measure, which now heads to the Senate. 

Urban, an animal-rights activist, has said the bill is intended to stop what she believes is discrimination against pitbull and pitbull-mix dogs.

"The whole idea behind it is vilifying, it is uneducated and unnecessary," she said in an interview earlier this year. “You hear it so often but it bears repeating: it's not the dog, it's the owner.” 

Others who supported the measure echoed Urban’s sentimentsin testimony before a legislative committee earlier this year. 

“Breed-specific legislation does not enhance public safety or reduce dog bite incidents,” Annie Hornish, Connecticut’s director of the Humane Society of the U.S., testified before a legislative committee. “Rather, such laws, regulations and ordinances are costly to enforce and harm families, dogs and communities.” 

Hornish also said breed-specific bans often target pitbulls, a broad breed category that can be used to describe many different types of bull dogs that are not associated with dog fighting or aggressive behavior. 

A group that represents towns, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, has filed testimony opposing the bill, saying it could “unnecessarily tie the hands of municipal officials, preventing them from enacting measures that they believe are best to help ensure the health and safety of their” communities.

But another group that lobbies on behalf of towns supports the measure. 

In testimony before lawmakers in February John Filchak, executive director of the Northeast Regional Council of Governments, said his organization runs a regional animal control facility that has adopted out thousands of abandoned or rescued dogs since the facility was established since 2004. 

“Based on our experience we see no correlation between the breed of a dog and its propensity to be dangerous or a threat to people,” Filchak said. 


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