State Senator Michael J. Skindell congratulates local activists, whose campaign to bring fair dog laws to Lakewood finally succeeded Monday evening, after a decade of effort.
At the April 2, 2018 Lakewood City Council meeting, council members voted for updated legislation, that ends the city’s pit-bull ban and 10 years of discriminatory breed-specific legislation (BSL).
As a legislator Skindell dedicated years to a parallel effort, to repeal statewide BSL, which expert studies have found impractical, costly and potentially counterproductive to public safety. In session after session, Skindell introduced, co-sponsored and voted for bills to make Ohio law breed-neutral. In 2012, his own persistence finally met with success.
Skindell also congratulates Lakewood Councilmembers Tristan Rader and Meghan George. Their landslide victories in November, following public commitments to support a breed-neutral Lakewood, provided activists with needed allies on council and helped break up the logjam that had kept BSL in place so long.
As the owner of a wonderful lab named Annie, Skindell appreciates personally that our closeness to companion animals mean that dog policies impact people. While a member of Lakewood City Council, Skindell co-created Lakewood’s off-leash dog park, along with Dennis Dunn. More recently, as a legislator Skindell successfully passed legislation letting judges extend protection orders to companion animals, which too often have been threatened or harmed to attack a person granted a protection order.