When the City Council of Midwest City, OK. (200,000 plus population suburb municipality near Oklahoma City) passed an ordinance banning American Pit Bull Terriers, investigator and Pit Bull owner Jerry Stuckey went into action.
Thanks to Stuckey's organization efforts through Midwest City for Bull Dogs, the ordinance, passed by the council August 5th, was brought to court.
The decision, handed down September 24th by Oklahoma City District Court Judge James Blevins, overturned the ban and nullified the Midwest City ordinance.
The seriousness of the Pit Bull paranoia was evidenced in the terms of the ordinance.
It called for all Pit Bull Terriers in Midwest City to be totally restrained, caged, and muzzled when taken out of their cages.
The ordinance forbid any new Pit Bull Terriers from being brought into the city and called for any Pit Bull puppies born in the city to be eliminated or take out of the city within eight weeks after birth.
Each owner was required to carry $50,000 in liability insurance on any Pit Bull in the city.
As Stuckey noted, with insurance companies unwilling to write that kind of coverage, that element alone would have prevented anyone in Midwest City from owning an American Pit Bull Terrier.
According to Stuckey, Judge Blevins ruled the ordinance in violation of the Constitution's 5th and 14th Amendments and said the council has been caught up in the frenzy of publicity relating to Pit Bull Terriers.
Midwest City has appealed the District Court decision.
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