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Ark. town puts down uninsured pit bulls

Pine Bluff, Ark., officials have euthanized 85 pit bills since June 16, when a new ordinance took effect, requiring owners to obtain $100,000 insurance policies to cover dog attacks.

An additional 26 pit bulls have been banished from the city. Meanwhile, a handful of owners have insured their dogs.

“There’s grown men calling me, crying, saying ‘They’re about to kill my dog if I don’t find insurance,”‘ said Mike Waymack, a broker with Best Quote Insurance Agency in Pine Bluff.

Besides carrying insurance, pit bull owners must register their dogs with the city, and have the animals spayed or neutered and marked with a tattoo ID. No one younger than 21 can handle a pit bull in public, according to the ordinance, and the animals cannot be chained in back yards.

The owner can be fined for violating the ordinance —and the pit bull can be euthanized.

Waymack said it costs about $500 or more annually to insure the pit bulls.

DeLoyd Cleveland, director of Pine Bluff’s Animal Control, said the city’s pit bull population had grown to more than 1,000 dogs.

“Pine Bluff has become a breeding ground and a manufactory for pit bulls,” he said. “There’s no doubt the ordinance will reduce the number of pit bulls here.”

North Little Rock also has a pit bull ordinance, which went into effect in 2004. Last year, the city seized 402 pit bulls and euthanized 321, said Animal Control Director Billy Grace.

c:Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

La. claims order goes to court

Louisiana plans to fight attempts by Allstate Corporation to have a federal court determine if new laws giving homeowners two years to file lawsuits against their insurers is legal.

Allstate filed suit July 20 asking U.S. District Judge James Brady to determine the constitutionality of two laws passed this year by the Legislature. The attorney general filed a similar suit in state court on July 10, but the federal suit stopped action on the state suit.

The laws extend from one to two years that homeowners with
hurricane-related disputes with their insurers can sue their insurance companies.

Warren Byrd, executive counsel for the state insurance department, said the agency would ask Brady to have the dispute resolved in state court. Under the law, victims of Hurricane Katrina would have until Sept. 1, 2007, to file suits, while victims of Hurricane Rita would have until Oct. 1, 2007.

Allstate contends that the constitutionality question should be determined in federal court because the federal constitution prohibits states from passing laws that impair existing contracts.

The company also argues that standard federal flood insurance policies put a one-year limit on suits.

c:Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Topics Lawsuits