FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 30, 2008
Contact: Daisy Okas
Phone: 212-696-8343
AKC REPRESENTS DOG OWNERS IN
CHALLENGE TO DENVER BREED BAN
New York, NY - The American Kennel Club(r) (AKC(r)) will be joining
Karen R. Breslin of the Progressive Law Center, LLC of Lakewood,
Colorado and the Washington D.C. office of Kaye Scholer LLP in
representing dog-owning plaintiffs Sonya Dias and others who are
asserting that the Denver ordinance banning pit bulls within the
city limits is unconstitutional.
In March the United States District Court for the District of
Colorado, where the plaintiffs' 2007 lawsuit was originally filed,
dismissed the suit without granting a hearing. A brief is being
filed today in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth
Circuit asking to reverse that court's decision and grant the
plaintiffs/appellan ts a hearing on the unconstitutionality of the
Denver breed ban. The original lawsuit stated Dias and the other
owners were forced to move out of Denver with their dogs because of
the ban which they asserted was a violation of, among other things,
their constitutional rights.
The Denver ordinance bans ownership or possession of the
Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier
and the American Pit Bull Terrier and/or any dog with a majority of
physical traits of one or more of these breeds within the city or
county of Denver. Since 2005, as a result of this ordinance, several
hundred dogs within the city limits had been euthanized.
The AKC supports reasonable, enforceable, non-discriminatory laws to
govern the ownership of dogs. The AKC believes that dog owners
should be responsible for their dogs. We support laws that:
establish a fair process by which specific dogs are identified
as "dangerous" based on stated, measurable actions; impose
appropriate penalties on irresponsible owners; and establish a well-
defined method for dealing with dogs proven to be dangerous. We
believe that, if necessary, dogs proven to be "dangerous" may need
to be humanely destroyed. The AKC strongly opposes any legislation
that determines a dog to be "dangerous" based on specific breeds or
phenotypic classes of dogs.
