YAKIMA — Despite impassioned testimony from community members, Yakima’s 29-year-old ban on the dog breed will remain in place after the City Council voted 4-3 against moving the issue to committee for further discussion.
Opponents of lifting the ban stood their ground on safety concerns, saying they don’t want to be responsible for potential vicious dog attacks. Bill Lover, Maureen Adkison, Holly Cousens and Dulce Gutierrez voted against bringing the issue to committee.
Councilmember Carmen Mendez, who brought the topic to council and made the motion to move it to the Public Safety Committee, says she still plans to talk about the ban.
Since Mendez serves on that committee, she said, she realized she can ask for items to be put on the agenda. Those have to be approved by the committee chairwoman – Kathy Coffey.
“I feel very disappointed that the other councilmembers are not giving their constituents opportunity to even look at this 30-year-old ordinance,” Mendez said. She wanted to talk alternatives: “What other prerequisites do they need to have in order to be able to have a pit bull?”
Yakima resident Candie Turner called for pet owners to be more responsible and for parents to better supervise their children if there were concerns about dogs.
“We have made this mess. People have made this mess, by training these dogs to fight other dogs,” she said. “We need to clean it up.”
Nayeli Sanchez, age 12, got emotional as she talked about her pit bull.
In previous decades, she said, people have blamed Dobermans, German shepherds and Rottweilers, and now it’s pit bulls.
“When in reality, it’s the humans who are to blame,” the Union Gap girl said. “When will we take responsibility for the things we have done to them that lead to this violence and abuse?”
Many also pointed out that the basic identification of pit bulls is flawed, because there is no “pit bull” breed, and many characteristics of Staffordshire bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers look similar to those of boxers and mastiffs.
A few people spoke in favor of the ban, including a man whose friend was mauled by a pit bull and may never run again.
A broader concern raised by council members is the number of stray dogs on the street in the district and elsewhere.
