Family: Town Plans to Take, Kill Our Pit Bull

Moreauville family says Zeus is therapeutic, but he risks being put down
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2014 8:11 AM CST
La. Family Fights Ban That Threatens Beloved Pit Bull
A pit bull, not Zeus, is shown here.   (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

One family in Moreauville, La., says its beloved dog has never bitten or attacked anyone. In fact, the family with six children calls Zeus something of a therapy dog for daughter O'Hara Owens, who is in a wheelchair and suffers from severe neck problems that also have her in a brace. But Zeus is a pit bull, and he now risks being put down thanks to the town's recently passed ordinance banning all pit bulls and Rottweilers, reports kalb.com. Moreauville has sent out letters advising owners that if such dogs aren't gone come Dec. 1, it will confiscate them for "further disposition."

The family, which has also been interviewed by CNN, recently took its story to MoveOn.org, where, as of this writing, more than 145,000 people have so far signed a petition asking the tiny hamlet's mayor, chief of police, and aldermen to reconsider. (The 2010 US Census puts the population of Moreauville at 929, so enough people to populate it more than 155 times have now, in effect, signed the petition.) Even if the ordinance holds, "They're going to have to take him from my cold, dead hands," O'Hara says. (Check out how one pit bull recently saved a boy from a bee attack.)

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