Family Fights to Save Pit Bull from Being 'Impounded'
By EmanuellaGrinberg and Natalie Snedden, CNN
Updated 9:55 PM ET, Sun November 23, 2014
Family to lose dog to village ordinance02:39
A Louisiana family is fighting to protect its beloved pit bull from a "vicious dogs" ordinance.
Joanna Armand started an online petition to protect pit bull Zeus from an uncertain fate. The petition, which asks the village of Moreauville to reverse a "vicious dog" ban against pit bulls and Rottweilers, has drawn nearly 40,000 signatures.
Zeus is far from a vicious dog, Armand told CNN. He provides love and support for her children, especially daughter O'Hara, who suffers from severe neck problems and uses a Halo brace and a wheelchair.
"If anything ever happened to him, I would just shut down," O'Hara told KALB.
Zeus acts as a sort of therapy dog for O'Hara, Armand told CNN. He sleeps by O'Hara's side every night; if O'Hara wakes up with seizures, he rouses her mother.
The family has asked local officials to consider the special circumstances, only to be told there's nothing they can do, Armand told CNN.
The village of Moreauville passed an ordinance in October banning pit bulls and rottweilers as of December 1. Owners of the animals received a letter saying that pets found within the corporate limits of Moreauville after that date will be "impounded and transported to a veterinary clinic for further disposition," according to aletter posted on the family's Facebook page.
The mayor and alderman of Moreauville did not respond to CNN's repeated requests for comment. Alderman Penn Lemoine told KALB that the ordinance was created to placate residents in the small village.
"We had several residents that were complaining about not being able to walk along the neighborhoods because these dogs were basically running along town," Lemoine said, according to KALB.
Moreauville is not the first to pass a ordinance restricting the ownership of pit bulls, rottweilers or other so-called "vicious dogs." But theAmerican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animalsrecommends breed neutral laws "that focus, not on breed, but on people's responsibility for their dogs' behavior, including measures that hold owners of all breeds accountable for properly housing, supervising and controlling their dogs."
The White House alsosignaled its oppositionto breed-specific legislation in 2013, saying "research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources." Several states have passed legislation banning local governments from introducing breed-specific laws or ordinances.
Besides, pit bulls are not a breed of dog. Several breeds of dogs, mainly the Bull Terrier, the Bull dog and the American Staffordshire terrier are commonly referred to as "pit bulls." These dogs descended from an English bull-baiting dog bred to bite and hold bulls, bears and other large animals around the face and head, according to the ASPCA. They were later bred with terriers to produce a more agile, athletic type dog.
"It is likely that that the vast majority of pit bull type dogs in our communities today are the result of random breeding -- two dogs being mated without regard to the behavioral traits being passed on to their offspring. The result of random breeding is a population of dogs with a wide range of behavioral predispositions. For this reason it is important to evaluate and treat each dog, no matter its breed, as an individual."
KALB - Moreauville, Louisiana -We have good news for fans of a local family who were at risk of losing their beloved pet pit bull.
Monday evening, the Village of Moreauville voted to repeal a controversial "vicious dog" ban ordinance that forced owners of pit bulls and Rottweilers to get rid of their pets, or they would be taken to a vet for "further disposition."
It's a story News Channel 5 brought you first.
News Channel 5's Brooke Buford (Facebook: Brooke Buford - KALB, Twitter: @brookebuford) has the latest.
An international campaign to save a pit bull in Moreauville named Zeus came to a happy ending Monday night.
"I get to have my best friend back," said O'Hara Owens, the owner of the dog.
Owens and her family were thrust into the spotlight when they became the face of a grassroots campaign to end "breed specific legislation," legislation that prohibits certain dog breeds.
In their case, it was their beloved pit bull Zeus, who had been blacklisted, along with Rottweilers, as a vicious breed in Moreauville.
Monday, that legislation was repealed, on the day it was supposed to originally go into effect.
"Zeus has been separated from our family for 24 hours now because we didn't know what was going to happen," said Joanna Armand, O'Hara's mother. "Our family has been in complete chaos. The kids aren't used to it. He's not used to it. So, I'm excited to go get him, bring him home and get everybody back to normal."
Mayor Timmy Lemoine, who had been absent from the debate while sick in the hospital, finally joined the conversation about the decision to repeal the breed ban.
"We got a threat from PETA that said, if we didn't repeal this ordinance, they had enough money to shut the Village of Moreauville down," he said. "I wasn't going to be known as the mayor and shut the Village of Moreauville down because of this."
Lemoine says the village was never going to euthanize the dogs, just keep them at a shelter until the owner could find other arrangements.
Now, he says, the town will move to enact a Louisiana statute that punishes the owner instead of the pet.
"A citation will be issued like a ticket if there's a problem with the animal," said Mayor Lemoine. "It will go to the 12th Judicial Court for the district attorney to decide the fine and what will happen with the owner and the animal."
The Owens-Armand family says they're grateful to the global dog-loving community for the support in getting the ordinance overturned.
"Thank you! we may not have that much love here, but from across the world, that just shows that the BSL legislation has harmed more people than has done good," said Armand.