People in Muscatine are rallying around one statement- blame the deed, not the breed. They are hoping for change to a 2003 city ordinance that bans pit bulls inside city limits.
Paige Sours and her boyfriend have an eight-year-old pit bull named Sissy, who is now living in Davenport after they got a notice they were breaking the city code. She now has a petition circling the city, and social media, looking to end the breed-specific rule.
She only had three minutes to tell Muscatine City Council members why the ordinance needed to be changed, but she wasn't there alone.
"It`s completely pointless. It`s discriminatory towards animals and dog breeds. Communities shouldn`t feel safe just because one breed of dog is banned. Any dog can bite you and be vicious if not raised properly," Sours said.
That's one of the points she wanted council members to understand, that the rule should ban aggressive dogs and not any specific breed. Each person to come up after her pushed that point home even more.
"It`s such a relief that I`m not the only one fighting for this. I`m not only fighting for my dog, I`m fighting for the community`s dogs and everyone who wants to own a pit bull. A responsible property owner should be able to own whichever breed of dog they choose," Sours said.
Sours started a petition on Change.org earlier this month focused on getting more attention to the rule. She didn't know how many people would sign it, but the results in just one week blew her away.
"My petition got signatures from all over the United States. Although those signatures don`t count, and I did take them out of the petition, we still got over 1,000 signatures from just people in the City of Muscatine," Sours said.
It was just a few minutes at a podium, but Sours hopes her time could be enough to change some opinions, and maybe help change some laws.
"Communication is key. The more people you tell, the more they can share that information. Education is the most important factor," Sours said.
Council members didn't take any action on the issue at Thursday's meeting, with some pushing against the idea of bringing it up again at future council meetings. Sours says she'll be speaking individually with them, hoping to open up a deeper dialogue about the pit bull ban.
Nationwide, more than 700 cities have enacted breed-specific laws.