Pit Bull Banning in Hazleton, PA

[daisy18216]

I saw this coming. Only b/c the article that the state police put in the newspaper looking for the owner of a pit bull and lately w/all the pit bulls that were being picked up by the Animal Shelter.

Here is an article in today's paper about how a Hazleton Cop (Greg Rossi who is my husband's cousin) shot a pit bull and now hazleton is considering on banning all pitties.

I don't know what I can do to help change their minds.

Here is the link:

Hazleton cop shoots, kills onrushing pit bull

For those that might not want to click I'll also paste the article here.

Hazleton, PA Top Stories | Local Sports | Your Weather | The New Neighborhood | Changing times
The Standard-Speaker

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Hazleton cop shoots, kills onrushing pit bull
Incident spurs city officials to review other municipalities' laws banning dogBy ALAN GREGORY
The Standard-SpeakerJune 9 - A Hazleton police officer was forced to shoot and kill a pit bull when the animal charged at him Tuesday afternoon.

And the incident prompted city officials to begin reviewing other municipalities' laws banning pit bulls.

Police said the officer was dispatched to the area of Immanuel Christian School on Locust Street to check on a report that a dog was running loose in the area.

"Upon arrival, the officer located two pit bulls at 11th Street and Lafayette Court. As the officer exited his vehicle, the larger brown pit bull charged . . . in an aggressive manner," police said.

The patrolman then fired one bullet, killing the animal.

Police said they and city Health Officer Mark Thompson would be citing the owner of the dogs, Michael McKinney, for several violations.

A phone number for McKinney could not be found in the Hazleton directory.

Police said a Hazleton Animal Shelter worker took the second dog and placed it into the shelter.

"The two pit bulls were roaming; they were running stray on a city street, and the one dog charged officer Greg Rossi," Thompson said.

"So he was defending himself. The dog was charging him."

Thompson said McKinney was asked to come to the scene to retrieve the other dog, but didn't show up.

The second animal, a female, returned to McKinney's home, Thompson said, "and stood barking at the rear door, as no one was home."

Another city patrolman, James Dixon, was then able to snare that animal and it was eventually taken to the animal shelter.

Thompson said the dog taken to the shelter "apparently recently had a litter of pups."

And Thompson said McKinney was also cited on May 28 for the same offense: allowing a dog to roam.

The charge carries a maximum fine of $300, Thompson said.

Police, meanwhile, plan to cite McKinney for causing a public disturbance, Thompson said.

He said McKinney was supposed to retrieve the female dog from the shelter. The dog's status could not be learned Wednesday afternoon.

"We are looking into laws banning pit bulls," Thompson said. "Enough is enough."

Thompson said he investigated an earlier incident involving the dog that was destroyed Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, the animal tried to break into a woman's home in which a female dog in heat was living, he said.

In that instance, the dog was taken to the shelter but got loose and returned to the woman's residence.

"This dog roamed the city for two days," Thompson said.

Dog owners must keep their pets secured," he said.

"The danger yesterday was that school was getting out" and children were nearby, Thompson said. "We don't want an occurrence" in Hazleton where children in other cities have been attacked by free-roaming dogs.


And yet this idiot stupid irresponsible owner got cited once before. I think they need to be harsher on the owner and not so hard on the animals. This guy was cited back in May, they should have known he do it again. There are alot of other breeds running loose and roaming Hazleton and I don't see them putting a ban on those breeds.

Again, the Pit Bull breed has to suffer all b/c of a stupid dumba$s.



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