Sen. Skindell congratulates activists for bringing fair dog laws to Lakewood

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.