The following is a brief of the full story. For the full version, see Tuesday's print edition of the Boonville Daily News.

Pilot Grove is now one of many towns attempting to pass an ordinance banning certain breeds of vicious dogs within city limits.

At the December meeting, the city council had instructed Mayor Dennis Knipp to have city counselor Mike Conway draft an ordinance banning five different breeds of potentially dangerous dogs.

In recent months, other cities -- both nation-wide and locally -- have explored ordinances to ban pit bulls. The Pilot Grove Council wanted a wider ban so that there would not be discrimination against any breed in particular. According to the Pilot Grove City Council, there are currently eight breeds of dogs that the American Kennel Association has deemed vicious. The new ordinance would ban five of those. They include:

• Pit bull;

• Chinesischer Kampfhund (Chinese fighting dog), otherwise known as a Shar Pei;

• Chow;

• Doberman; and

• Rottweiler

At last month’s meeting, the council noted that once a dog of any breed bites it is considered a vicious dog.

The ban, if approved, would prohibit new vicious dogs from being allowed in the city after the passing of the ordinance.

Pilot Grove residents that currently have one of the five breeds considered vicious would be exempt from the ordinance for current dogs. Once those pets die or otherwise leave the city they can not be replaced by another dog considered vicious.

Dog owners that have not registered their dogs would have a grace period of 90 days to license their dog with the city. If a dog is not registered by that time, it would not be eligible to remain in the city. If a registered vicious dog has puppies, the owner would have six weeks to have the dogs removed from city limits.