Dog Suit Dismissed

A judge on Wednes­day, dis­missed a case against a Swan­ton man charged with fail­ing to reg­is­ter a dog deemed vicious under the village’s code because it was labeled a “pit bull”-type dog.

The case cen­tered around a dog named Bai­ley, who was owned by Tim Bork and his fam­ily.

Swan­ton Vil­lage coun­sel for the case filed the motion for dis­missal, admit­ting there was not enough evi­dence to prove that Bai­ley fit within the para­me­ters set by the ordi­nance.

Despite the state’s move away from breed-specific lan­guage in 2012, the vil­lage of Swan­ton main­tains an ordi­nance label­ing as vicious “any breed of dog that is com­monly known as a ‘pit bull dog.’ “

The ordi­nance states that Stafford­shire bull ter­ri­ers, Amer­ic­can pit bull ter­ri­ers, and Amer­i­can Stafford­shire ter­ri­ers are vicious, as well as any mixed breed dog that has “as an ele­ment of its breed­ing, the breed of Stafford­shire bull ter­rier, or Amer­i­can pit bull terrier.