Painesville, Ohio

Breed Specific Restrictions passed.  Restrictions are above and beyond State law

CITY OF PAINESVILLE AMENDS ITS DOG ORDINANCE

For the safety of City residents and their pets, a new requirement was added to Painesville City’s ordinances dealing with animal control issues, specifically related to walking pit bulls or pit bull mix dogs, or a vicious dog in the City. Two recent incidents in which residents’ leashed dogs were attacked by pit bulls not leashed while on a walk stress the need to make the change in the law.

Section 505.18(b) specifically states: “Any pit bull dog, pit bull mixed breed dog, or other vicious dog, as defined or referred to in Section 955.11 of the Ohio Revised Code, which is outside the premises of the dog owner, shall be kept on a leash and muzzled until the dog’s return to the premises of ownership.”

Section 505.18(a) provides a regulation on the amount of pit bull dogs, pit bull mix dogs, or vicious dogs owned, kept, harbored, or provided sustenance for, in the City specifying no more than one dog.

The penalty for a violation of 505.18 is a misdemeanor of the first degree subject to six months in jail and a fine of one thousand dollars.

The new law was patterned after a Toledo City law that was recently upheld in the Ohio Supreme Court. To obtain a copy of the ordinance please contact the Clerk of Council at 440-392-5803