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Lawmaker looks for
shorter leash on dogs, owners
LINCOLN (AP) -- At least one lawmaker wants to put dangerous dogs -- and their owners -- on a shorter leash. "Nebraska's current dog laws are confusing, at best," said Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul, speaking before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee on Friday. The committee is studying whether tougher laws aimed at dangerous dogs and their owners are needed, at McDonald's request. "Our state laws are too permissive," she added later. Dog bites aren't tracked statewide, so McDonald's belief that something more needs to be done is based on anecdotal evidence and her assertion that the state law, on it's face, is too weak. She wants to make it easier to label dogs as dangerous, which can force them to be confined and even euthanized if they continue to attack. Unlike some states where dogs can be branded as dangerous without injuring someone, they can only be labeled as such in Nebraska after injuring or killing a person or killing another domesticated animal. Cities, however, can have more stringent laws. In Omaha, dogs that only attack people or domesticated animals to be considered dangerous. They can be seized by officials, for example, if they attack a person able to ward off a dog and escape injury. About 30 dangerous-dog citations are issued each year in Omaha, according to Mark Langan of the Nebraska Humane Society. Citations are less likely to be issued in rural areas where the less-stringent state law is followed and where there usually aren't animal control officers, said McDonald. She wants new criteria in state law to make it easier to define dogs as dangerous and stiffer penalties for owners to help lessen the chances they continue to own dangerous dogs. She isn't seeking a ban on certain breeds, which Langan suggested is wise because such bans tend to drain city resources and simply drive ownership of banned dogs underground. The Legislature was headed that direction during its last lawmaking session -- if you consider wolf-hybrids dogs. A bill that would have essentially banned animals that are part wolf, part dog was watered down to allow the breeds even though there is no licensed vaccination for wolf-dogs. The ban was supported by Scott Tingelhoff, the Saunders County attorney. Some residents of Malmo had been trying for months to kick out nine wolf-hybrids that a couple brought to the village a couple years ago. Friday, Tingelhoff went after owners. "Most of the time the issue is not with the dogs, it's with the owners," he said. "And there's really nothing that addresses that in statutes." |
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