Update, December 13, 2022:

The city of Merryville, LA has suspended enforcement of its “pit bull” dog ban.

This comes after the city sent notices to nearly 20 dog owners giving them 48 hours to rehome their pets.

Although it is not currently being enforced, the ban is still on the books.The city will revisit the issue in its next council meeting in January.

We will continue to keep you updated if anything changes.

####

Update, December 7, 2022 6:20pm:

City officials have agreed to a hearing on Monday, December 12th. Until then, all dog owners who received a letter in the mail are allowed to keep their pets. We will update you as the situation continues to unfold.

####

Yesterday, 17 residents of Merryville, Louisiana received a notice from their city officials telling them that they needed to rehome their dogs within 48 hours.

Merryville has a “pit bull” dog ban that has been in place for over a decade. However, it has gone unenforced. We do not have a record of how long officials have been lax on enforcing the ban. According to local news outlet KPLCTV, yesterdays “letters were sent out based on previous complaints to the police department.”

To clarify, the police did not investigate the veracity of the claims before telling Merryville citizens that they needed to remove a member of their family from their home within 48 hours.

Some of the individuals who received citations for owning “pit bulls” have gone to the police department to prove that they were not in violation of the ordinance. The other families are struggling with how to handle this impossible situation.

Later this month, officials plan to discuss whether or not to keep the ban in place, but this is of no solace to the families currently facing $250 fines for loving a dog who’s done nothing wrong.

We are looking into this matter to see how we can help these families. We will update this post when we have more information.

Check on the status of breed bans in your hometown on our breed-specific legislation map.