Notice giving pit bulls a pass puzzles in NLR

Signs seemingly allowing pit bulls — which were banned by North Little Rock 11 years ago — to be inside the city’s Burns Park Dog Park if on a leash were taken down last week, after city officials said they were perplexed by the signs’ existence.

“Pit bull breeds” of dogs and those “commonly recognizable and identifiable as such” are “banned entirely and may not be owned or kept within the city,” according to Chapter 2 Article 5 Section 3 of the North Little Rock Municipal Code. The ban was imposed by the City Council in November 2004.

Pit bulls are allowed legally into the city only to visit veterinarians or if the owner can prove the dog is a registered show competitor.

However, signs that were posted on a fence at the dog park read, in part, that “any pit bull inside must be on a leash.”

After city officials were asked about the conflict with

the city’s ban, outgoing City Parks and Recreation Director Bob Rhoads said he removed the signs Wednesday after consulting with Animal Control Director Billy Grace and City Attorney Jason Carter. Rhoads is retiring after 17 years as parks director. His last day at work was Friday, completing a transition period with new Director Terry Hartwick.

Rhoads and Grace both said they didn’t know when or why the signs at the dog park were posted. The dog park, off Tournament Drive just east of the soccer complex, opened in late 2003, before the pit-bull ban.

“Nobody remembers for sure,” Grace said when asked when the signs were posted. “The Parks Department put the signs up. There shouldn’t be any legal [pit bulls].”

No new signs citing the city’s ban have yet replaced the old ones, Rhoads said. Having a sign that clearly states the city’s ban on pit bulls would be beneficial, Carter said.

“I don’t know why they had it up there in the first place,” Carter said. “It gives the impression that an animal is legal to be there when it’s not legal to be there.

“I think it’s a good idea to advise people of what the law is,” Carter said. “That just makes sense.”

Even with the longtime ban, pit bulls haven’t gone away. The animal control division seized 288 pit bulls in 2015 and more than 500 over the past two years, Grace said. Neighboring Sherwood and Maumelle also have longtime bans on pit bulls.

“People keep constantly bringing them in,” Grace said. “It’s like outlawing crime. It doesn’t make it go away.”

The dog park was divided into three sections for small, medium and large dogs about a year after it opened, Rhoads said. That would be close to the 2004 date that the City Council approved the pit-bull ban, which was imposed immediately.

An advisory committee during the design of the dog park may have recommended the signs, Rhoads said. Carter indicated that shouldn’t have been the case.

“Somebody might stop after pulling off the highway who has their dog with them and wants to stop to let it go to the bathroom and run free for a while, so you try to be accommodating,” Carter said of making exceptions to the pit-bull ban. “If that’s going to be our policy, if there is going to be an exception made, that exception needs to be made by City Council.”

Pit bulls already registered at the time of the City Council’s action in 2004 were grandfathered in to remain in the city. Those dogs most likely are no longer living, because the average life span of the dogs is eight to 15 years, according to several websites that discuss pit bulls.

The grandfathering clause “would seem to be the reason,” for the signs being put up initially, though “that reason has expired,” Carter said.

The ban was imposed because of reported attacks by pit bulls on people and pets and the reputation of pit bulls as violent and dangerous dogs.

Pit-bull advocates have countered by saying the perception is from “inflammatory media reports” of dogs involved in attacks that had been “poorly socialized and poorly trained,” according to the website petwave.com. The website describes pit bulls as “docile and intelligent … and wonderful family pets.”

Another website, dogtime.com, cautions pit-bull owners, recommending that the dogs be “kept on a leash in public to prevent aggression toward other dogs.” The website adds that it’s “not a good idea to let these dogs run loose in dog parks” because even if they don’t start a fight, “they’ll never back down from one and they fight to the finish.”

Grace said North Little Rock is “a safer place since we passed” the ban, even with the hundreds of illegal ones still in the city, because the ban may have kept them from being out in public.

“We used to have one or two children mauled every year, and I’m talking mauled,” Grace said. “It’s a safer world for the kids. We’ll see one in somebody’s backyard. We get lots of complaints that so-and-so has a pit bull. We have to obtain a search warrant if it’s inside a building and have to establish probable cause.”

Though show dogs are still allowed, Grace said none has ever been successfully registered in North Little Rock.

“A lot of them try,” he said. “I’ve never had anybody meet the qualifications yet.”