Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Georgia

Lobby to have the law changed.

First of all consider the reasons for such oridnances:

1. Most homeowners and renters insurance will refuse to cover you or will charge a higher premium (and that is because they get a lot of claims for death and personal injury from pit bulls).

2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in 2000 a study on dog bite-related fatalities (DBRF) that covered the years 1979�1998. The study found reports of 238 people killed by dogs over the 24-year period, of which "pit bull terrier" or mixes thereof were reportedly responsible for killing 76, or about 32 percent, of the people killed by dogs in the attacks identified in the study. The breed with the next-highest number of attributed fatalities was the Rottweiler and mixes thereof, with 44 fatalities or about 18 percent of the study-identified fatalities. In aggregate, pit bulls, Rottweilers, and mixes thereof were involved in about 50% of the fatalities identified over the 20-year period covered by the study, and for 67% of the DBRF reported in the final two years studied (1997�1998), concluding "It is extremely unlikely that they [pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers] accounted for anywhere near 60% of dogs in the United States during that same period and, thus, there appears to be a breed-specific problem with fatalities." (So there is a danger from the breed regardless of whether you feel a particular dog is an exception).

Such laws are now very common. Ontario, Canada,, Miami, Florida, and Denver, Colorado are three major cities with such laws (and the courts have not upheld challenges). A growing number of Georgia jurisdictions have passed such ordinances.

Since you are apparently in violation of the ordinance, you either need to move or give away the dog.

You asked what you can do to challenge it. Since laws are passed by local city councils, you would have to lobby the city council. It is unlikely such lobbying will succeed, but that is how you effectuate political change.