The Kearney Board of Aldermen repealed the Pit Bull Ordinance by a split vote on Monday, March 18. The city of Kearney was one of the last communities in the northland to have a ban on pit bulls.

After years of trying to get the city’s pit bull ordinances (1050-2006 and 1078-2007) repealed, Aldemen finally finished the job. The pit bull ordinance had two parts from the early 2000’s and both were repealed and removed from the municipal code.

In 2023, the city created an online poll to ask residents what they thought about the repeal of the pit bull ban. According to the poll, 58% of the respondents strongly supported a repeal of the pit bull ban and 33% strongly supported keeping the ban.

Respondents to the poll also said that if the ban is repealed then they wanted stronger leash laws, mandatory dog registrations, and harsher penalties for dog bites.

The poll received a total of 950 responses. Out of those responses only 450 were verified responses. Out of those responses, 407 were from residents who lived inside the city limits.

Alderman David Lehman was in favor of lifting the ban. Alderwoman Kathy Barger also voted to repeal the ordinance, although she said she was personally not in favor of the repeal.

“I have a friend who was attacked in his own back yard by a pit bull who jumped his fence,” said Barger. “However as an elected representative of this community, I feel it is my duty is to vote as the people wish. While I don’t agree with it, I feel like the survey indicated there was a majority in this community that want the pit bull ban repealed.”

Aldermen Holt and Spencer voted ‘nay’ on the pit bull repeal. With the Board tied on the decision, the tie-breaker came down to Mayor Pogue who voted for the repeal.

The repeal of the past pit bull ban went into effect immediately with the 3-2 decision Monday night. The city beefed up its dangerous animal ordinance earlier this year in anticipation of this repeal.

“The new greatly revised and strengthened Dangerous Animal ordinance was passed 3-0 at the March 4th Alderman meeting,” Aldermen Lehman told KPGZ News. “The new Dangerous Animal ordinance is great in the fact that the municipal judge decides if an animal is deemed dangerous and if the judge does deem the animal dangerous then there are multiple steps that the owner has to follow such as spay/neuter the animal, microchip the animal. But the judge is the one that determines if an animal is dangerous based on the new ordinance and the criteria in it.”

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story