![\"Prairie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-03-20_19-13-58-507-e1742523265624.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n PRAIRIE VILLAGE,\u00a0 Kansas;\u00a0 KANSAS CITY,\u00a0 Missouri\u2013\u2013<\/strong>From Prairie Village,\u00a0 Kansas to Kansas City,\u00a0 Missouri is just one step over the middle of State Line Road.<\/p>\n Therefore an infant who reportedly remained in critical condition a week later a pit bull mauling in the child\u2019s home was on the evening of March 13,\u00a0 2025 rushed from Prairie Village to Children\u2019s Mercy Hospital in downtown Kansas City.<\/p>\n Prairie Village police sergeant Josh Putthoff disclosed little about the attack except that \u201cThe bite incident took place at the dog owner\u2019s home while the owner was taking care of the infant. \u00a0The dog owner is not the child\u2019s parent.\u00a0 This specific dog,\u201d\u00a0 who was euthanized at request of the owner, \u201chad no history of aggression within Prairie Village and was not known to law enforcement,\u201d\u00a0 summarized Juliana Garcia for the Johnson County Post<\/em> on March 18, \u00a02025.<\/p>\n Katie Bray Barnett.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe incident comes five years after the city of Prairie Village repealed its ban on pit bulls,\u201d\u00a0 recalled Garcia.<\/p>\n The repeal campaign was led by attorney Katie Bray Barnett of Topeka, \u00a0Kansas.<\/p>\n Bray Barnett, \u00a0a former Best Friends Animal Society intern, \u00a0is cofounder of GameDog Guardian pit bull rescue,\u00a0 and is co-author with Best Friends Animal Society senior legislative attorney Ledy VanKavage of various papers written in opposition to pit bull bans.<\/p>\n VanKavage led the parallel campaign to rescind a pit bull ban that was in effect in Kansas City from 1990 to 2019.<\/p>\n Pit bull lobbyist Ledy VanKavage.<\/strong><\/em> Meanwhile,\u00a0 VanKavage suggested to CBC Fifth Estate<\/em> reporter Mark Kelley in October 2017 that a fatal pit bull attack on a two-year-old,\u00a0 who was ripped from his also badly injured babysitter\u2019s arms,\u00a0 might have happened because the child was crying.<\/p>\n Responded Kelley,\u00a0 \u201cBut if the child WAS crying?\u00a0 What kind of dog would attack a child?\u201d<\/p>\n (See Daxton\u2019s Friends, five years after trusted pit bulls killed a toddler<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The primary argument for repealing the Prairie Village pit bull ban was that it became much harder to enforce after the Kansas City pit bull ban repeal.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unsuccessfully fighting the Prairie City repeal proposal,\u00a0 former Prairie Village city council member Sheila Myers urged that the pit bull ban should be lifted only with the stipulations that pit bulls should be kept behind six-foot-high fences;\u00a0 be leashed or muzzled when off their owners\u2019 property;\u00a0 have had obedience training;\u00a0 and be spayed or neutered, \u00a0as well as microchipped.<\/p>\n Warned Myers,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIf council votes to repeal without restrictions, \u00a0then every council member who votes in favor will bear responsibility when, \u00a0not if, \u00a0a pit bull mauls a dog or person in Prairie Village.\u201d’<\/p>\n Savannah Edwards<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Kansas City pit bull ban,\u00a0 and pit bull bans once in effect in most Kansas City suburbs,\u00a0 fell one by one to aggressive lobbying by the Animal Friends Foundation,\u00a0 Best Friends Animal Society,\u00a0 and the American SPCA [ASPCA],\u00a0 beginning in Topeka in September 2010.<\/p>\n The Topeka repeal appears to have contributed to the pit bull mauling deaths of Savannah Edwards,\u00a0 age 2,\u00a0 and Piper Dunbar,\u00a0 also age 2, \u00a0later in 2010 and in 2016,\u00a0 respectively.<\/p>\n Savannah Edwards was reportedly killed by a pit bull from a local shelter that has never been identified in print.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n (See\u00a0Repeal of pit bull bylaw contributes to death of two-year-old<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Tori Fugate.<\/strong><\/em> The Kansas City point group for the bans to be lifted,\u00a0 the KC Pet Project, \u00a0founded by pit bull advocate Brent Toellner,\u00a0 won the Kansas City animal shelter management contract in 2012.<\/p>\n Toellner left the KC Pet Project in 2016 to become senior director of national programs for the Best Friends Animal Society,\u00a0 working with Bray Barnett and VanKavage to dismantle pit bull bans around the country.\u00a0 His chosen successor at the KC Pet Project,\u00a0 Tori Fugate,\u00a0 subsequently won the entire Kansas City animal control contract.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe city managed municipal animal control until December 2020, \u00a0when it started contracting with KC Pet Project to oversee the services,\u201d\u00a0 summarized Eleanor Nash for the Kansas City Star<\/em> on March 6,\u00a0 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the city was in charge of animal control, \u00a0the busiest year for animal court saw 4,781 cases (for violations of the Kansas City animal control ordinance) filed from May 2016 through April 2017,\u201d\u00a0 Nash found.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen KC Pet Project took over in December 2020, \u00a0halfway through the fiscal year, \u00a0the filings dropped dramatically, \u00a0from approximately 3,300 the previous year to almost 600 that year, \u00a0an 82% decrease.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first full fiscal year with KC Pet Project in charge of animal services created a record low number of animal filings: \u00a064 in 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kansas City,\u00a0 while repealing the former city pit bull ban,\u00a0 introduced a requirement that pit bulls be spayed or neutered,\u00a0 against the opposition of KC Pet Project,\u00a0 which in taking over animal services also took over responsibility for enforcing the pit bull sterilization ordinance.<\/p>\n Sam Zeff of KCUR radio in Kansas City in July 2024 noted a \u201cgrowing pit bull population in Kansas City,\u201d\u00a0 resulting from alleged non-enforcement of the ordinance.<\/p>\n \u201cOn July 1, 2024,\u201d\u00a0 Zeff reported,\u00a0 \u201cthere were 288 dogs listed for adoption on the KC Pet Project website. \u00a0Exactly half \u2014 144 \u2014 were pit bulls.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage) <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This was Zeff\u2019s second survey of KC Pet Project dogs offered for adoption.<\/p>\n \u201cOf the 249 dogs offered for adoption on the KC Pet Project web site as of May 30,\u00a0 2023,\u00a0\u201c\u00a0 Zeff wrote then, \u00a0\u201c222\u2013\u201389%\u2013\u2013were either pit bulls or pit mixes with pit bull traits clearly dominant.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year,\u201d\u00a0 Zeff detailed,\u00a0 \u201cKC Pet Project wrote just 48 tickets for failure to spay or neuter pit bulls, \u00a0according to data from Kansas City Municipal Court. \u00a0That is 74% fewer tickets than the organization issued in 2020 when it took over animal control and 88% fewer than 2019, \u00a0the last year the city ran animal control.\u201d<\/p>\n (See Kansas City Pet Project dog attack claims don\u2019t add up<\/a> and When pit bull fanatics run animal control: U.K. could learn from K.C.<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Wrote Kansas City Star<\/em> reporter Eleanor Nash,\u00a0 \u201cKansas City Council members have been scrutinizing KC Pet Project\u2019s track record enforcing the city\u2019s animal control laws, \u00a0leading up to a vote that could bring the services back under city control.\u201d<\/p>\n Impelling the investigation have been multiple severe maulings by pit bulls and closely related bully breeds,\u00a0 including the November 3,\u00a0 2024 death of Chris Culbertson,\u00a0 46,\u00a0 attacked the day before by seven pit bulls who broke through a board fence,\u00a0 identified as pit bulls by the responding Kansas City police officers.<\/p>\n A neighbor\u2019s security camera reportedly caught the entire 23-minute episode on video.\u00a0 The clips that have been released appear to show pit bulls.<\/p>\n (See Another Kansas City pit bull fatality intensifies spotlight on KC Pet Project<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n (Screenshot from video.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cA woman named Holly Lane ran to help and, \u00a0in the process, was bitten,\u201d\u00a0 reported Malik Jackson of FOX-4KC on March 12,\u00a0 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cNow Lane is suing KC Pet Project,\u201d\u00a0 Jackson continued, \u00a0\u201csaying in part in the lawsuit:\u00a0 \u2018Prior to November 2, 2024,\u00a0 KCPP had received multiple complaints from residents that various pit bull dogs in the neighborhood had escaped their enclosures.\u201d<\/p>\n But Katie Bray Barnett, \u00a0now general counsel for KC Pet Project,\u00a0 told Malik Jackson,\u00a0 Jackson paraphrased,\u00a0 \u00a0that \u201cIt was Lane\u2019s own dogs who had been terrorizing the neighborhood for two years before and after the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe can confirm that those dogs we were looking for in 2023 and were the subject of the directed patrol were German shepherds from the household of Holly Lane,\u201d said Bray Barnett.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we do believe these dogs should be taken off the streets for public safety. \u00a0I mean,\u00a0 it\u2019s clear that for two years these German shepherds have been terrorizing this neighborhood,\u201d \u00a0Bray Barnett told Jackson.<\/p>\n Recounted Jackson,\u00a0 \u201cFOX4 drove by Lane\u2019s home and saw one German shepherd.\u00a0 FOX4 found three citations, \u00a0all for dogs in Lane\u2019s home.<\/p>\n \u201cKC Pet Project says they have no record of any calls about loose pit bulls in this neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0 having dismantled the previous Kansas City dog ordinance,\u00a0 Katie Bray Barnett and Ledy VanKavage have resurfaced as critics of the legislation now in effect.<\/p>\n \u201cA line needs to be added in the ordinance,\u201d\u00a0 VanKavage told Kansas City Star<\/em> reporter Ilana Arougheti,\u00a0 Arougheti paraphrased,\u00a0 \u201callowing animal control officers to take a dog out of an owner\u2019s yard if they consider it dangerous and a threat to the public, \u00a0without having to wait for a warrant,\u00a0 leaving it to the municipal judge\u2019s discretion to decide if their ruling stands.<\/p>\n \u201cDogs ruled to be dangerous should be required to be spayed or neutered, which is normal in many cities,\u201d\u00a0 and which is already required of pit bulls, \u00a0but the requirement,\u00a0 as Sam Zeff pointed out,\u00a0 is opposed and has been largely unenforced by KC Pet Project.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n VanKavage \u201crecommended Kansas City add a clause defining a reckless owner and another defining a dog bite to its ordinance,\u201d\u00a0 Arougheti wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, there isn\u2019t verbiage in place specific to owners who allow their dogs to roam free and charge at pedestrians.\u00a0 In other cities, \u00a0Vankavage said, \u00a0a person can be barred from owning a dog for up to five years if they receive three of these types of violations within 24 months.<\/p>\n Katie Bray Barnett \u201cflagged as a problem was that the city code doesn\u2019t include a specific ticket or citation for a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog,\u201d\u00a0 Arougheti continued.\u00a0 \u201cThat means that KC Pet Project, \u00a0or whoever is tasked with animal control, \u00a0cannot cite a pet owner if they have reason to believe a dog is dangerous or has the potential to harm people.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cInstead, officers could only cite the owner for the dog being a nuisance, which is the same citation they\u2019d issue if a dog was barking too loudly and disturbing neighbors.<\/p>\n \u201cKC Pet Project can declare an animal dangerous if it has probable cause and conducts an investigation, but that involves an administrative hearing and can\u2019t lead to citations, \u00a0fines, \u00a0or jail time.\u201d<\/p>\n Only \u201cIf in the hearing the dog is found to be dangerous, \u00a0then the owner has to abide by certain restrictions like maintaining proper fencing and signage warning about the dangerous or potentially dangerous dog.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAnother big thing Bray Barnett said is missing from Kansas City\u2019s current laws,\u201d\u00a0 Arougheti mentioned, \u00a0\u201cis the ability for animal control to obtain a warrant to apprehend a dangerous dog.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, \u00a0the only circumstances that allow animal control to get a warrant and apprehend a dog are if the dog bit someone, or if a pet owner abused or neglected the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words,\u00a0 the current Kansas City dog ordinance does more to protect dogs than to protect the public.<\/p>\n The VanKavage and Bray Barnett recommendations invite asking why,\u00a0 so far as the published public record indicates,\u00a0 they did not amplify or apparently even mention most of them during the thirteen years they worked to undo the pit bull ban.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n VanKavage,\u00a0 according to an August 24,\u00a0 2006 account by Kansas City Star<\/em>\u00a0reporter James Hart,\u00a0 did recommend \u201cstiff penalties, including jail time, \u00a0if pet owners let a dangerous dog attack someone,\u201d\u00a0 encouraged \u201cdog owners, \u00a0pet shops and animal shelters to alter their dogs, \u00a0a process that could cut down on dog aggression,\u201d\u00a0 albeit now known to be relatively ineffective,\u00a0 and \u201cforcing pet owners to have a microchip inserted into their dog,\u201d\u00a0 so that \u201cIf an animal attacks someone, \u00a0the owner can be tracked down and held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n None of that,\u00a0 though,\u00a0 would prevent first attacks.\u00a0 And at least half of all fatal and disfiguring attacks by pit bulls,\u00a0 like the one on the Prairie Village infant on March 13,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 are the first known dangerous incident involving the dog.<\/p>\n The post Pit bull puts infant in critical where Best Friends campaign undid ban<\/a> appeared first on Animals 24-7<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Beth Clifton collage) First known attack by the pit bull involved\u2013\u2013as is typical PRAIRIE VILLAGE,\u00a0 Kansas;\u00a0 KANSAS CITY,\u00a0 Missouri\u2013\u2013From Prairie Village,\u00a0 Kansas to Kansas City,\u00a0 Missouri is just one step over the middle of State Line Road. Therefore an infant who reportedly remained in critical condition a week later a pit bull mauling in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[11347,1205,13503,11082,6450,8865,10469,18344,62221],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-148233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-ban","tag-bull","tag-campaign","tag-critical","tag-friends","tag-infant","tag-pit","tag-puts","tag-undid"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst known attack by the pit bull involved\u2013\u2013as is typical<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nLaw rewritten through influence of GameDog Guardian founder<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Best Friends Animal Society photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n“Was the baby crying?”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n“Every council member who voted for repeal will bear responsibility”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAggressive lobbying<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(KC Pet Project photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nKC Pet Project<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nKC Pet Project quit prosecuting violations of dog law<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n“Growing pit bull population”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n89% of dogs were pit bulls in 2023<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nChris Culbertson<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nHolly Lane<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nGerman shepherds?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBray Barnett & VanKavage:\u00a0 dog law has holes<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n“Add definition of dog bite”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n“Officers could only cite owners for dog being a nuisance”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n“Allow animal control to get a warrant”<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nNothing to prevent first attacks<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPlease donate to support our work:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
www.animals24-7.org\/donate\/<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n