Five things to know about the pit bull ban and their bite rate  

By: Josie LeCompte

A Boulder County city is the only place left with a ban on pit bulls across Colorado as of February 2023. This ban prohibits ownership of pit bulls within the city and provides certain exceptions.

Pit bulls have strong jaws and have a higher tendency to not release their victims when they bite and therefore can be more deadly than other breeds. Take a look at the photo above and guess how many out of the six fatally bit someone across the United States in 2022. If you guessed all six, you would be correct.

“A common misconception is that they [pit bulls] are aggressive. They are a strong muscular breed that has an intimidating look, however they tend to be nurturing and sweet. It is more about the owner than it is the dog!” says Kyle Warner, who is the community educator of Dumb Friends League.

The term “pit bull” usually doesn’t refer to a single dog breed. Pit bull is generally used as a broad description for a type of dog according to the Humane Society. Many dog breeds may be classified as pit bulls, including American Staffordshire Terriers, American Bull Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers, and American Bulldogs. 

Denver, Colorado had one of the nation’s longest pit breed restrictions in the nation which was enacted back in 1989 and ended after 31 years in 2021. But that doesn’t mean pit bulls and their related breeds are in the clear just yet. With tight restrictions and other mandates on pit bull breeds, here are five things to know about their current status in Colorado.

1. Though Denver lifted the ban, not all cities in Colorado did the same

Slowly, many cities are repealing their breed specific legislature (BSL) and that has left a single Colorado town with restrictions on the breeds. 22 miles north of Denver in Louisville has had a restriction on pit bulls since 1994. Restrictions are tight in Louisville and if you are caught with them within city limits you are sent to hearing and if the evidence is not sufficient that they are not pit-bull, the animal shall be destroyed and it’s the owners responsibility to pay for it.  

The AKC strongly opposes any legislation that determines a dog to be “dangerous” based on specific breeds or phenotypic classes of dogs. Repealbls.org is just one of the many organizations out there in hopes to end breed bans for good.  

2. Obtaining a Breed-Restricted Permit is a two-step process 

The ban being lifted in Denver is coming up on two years but there are new ways that pit bulls are being restricted even now. Restricted breeds in Denver need a Breed-Restricted Permit before they are classified as legal breeds. Obtaining a Permit can be done in two steps. 

First, the dog goes through an assessment where it is determined whether the dog is classified as a pit bull breed. According to Denver Animal Protection (DAP), the dog must have a majority of characteristics that lean pit bull for them to fall under the category. If they are found to be majority pit bull, they move onto step two and if not, they are allowed in Denver without a permit.

Step two is the permitting process itself; where DAP checks to make sure the dog has various things like a rabies vaccine, microchip, two emergency contacts in case of emergency and a city license. This license is valid for three years. 

3. Violations on the Breed-Restricted Permit 

Violations of the Permit according to DAP include biting, excessive barking, excrement, and charging of leash. Each violation results in a resetting of the three-year time period. In order to reapply for a breed-restricted permit, owners must show proof that the violation has been corrected.  Anna Neumann was bit before the permit was put in place and said, “they needed to put the dog down because it was its third vicious attack.” 

4. What’s next: Breed-Restricted Permit 

36 months of clear behavior from a pit bull in Denver removes them of their license but due to how recently the permitting was implemented not a single dog in Denver has hit that mark. If a pit has written notice, they have been removed from the Breed-Restricted permitting requirements. This will be more important next year as the three-year span of the permit starts to expire for some. 

5. 2022 Recapped  

Between Jan. 1 and July 8 of 2022 Denver Animal Protection identified 88 bites from pit bull breeds while 27 bites were reported for Labrador retrievers and 26 for German shepherds. Pit bulls also topped the list in Denver of the most severe bites with 4.5% of bites being level five severity. 

At Dumb Friends Animal League, Warner said 661 pit bulls were adopted out in 2022.

On Sept. 14, 2022, two pit bulls fatally attacked an 99-year old women and injured a young boy in Golden, CO. Both were familiar with the dogs before the attack and the owners headed to court for a combined six charges relating to unlawful ownership of a dangerous dog. This was the only fatal canine attack within state boarders in 2022. As Neumann says about the dog who attacked her, “it needed to go.”