After a piece of legislation that would have strengthened state law governing dangerous dogs failed to pass the Ohio House last year, a local lawmaker vows to reintroduce the bill.
“Ohio’s laws could probably stand some improvement to help prevent some of these [dog attacks],” state Sen. Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, said following this morning’s fatal dog attack on Middle Street in Dayton.
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“This is just the latest in a long series of events that were probably preventable in a lot of ways, and yet here we are again continuing to talk about it,” Beagle said at the statehouse Tuesday.
Beagle was the primary sponsor of the Klonda Richey Act, which unanimously passed the Ohio Senate in December, but was not taken up by the Ohio House before the last legislative day of 2016.
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Tuesday Beagle said he plans to reintroduce the legislation at the statehouse, but not before some revisions are made to the bill.
“It's in the process of being redrafted after we had some success in the senate last year,” Beagle said. “We had some folks that wanted to see some changes."
Just over three years ago, Richey, 57, was mauled to death by two mixed-mastiff dogs outside her home at 31 E. Bruce Ave.
Her body lay outside in subfreezing temperatures until a passerby reported seeing a naked body in the snow around 8:15 a.m.
When police responded, the dogs charged them and were shot and killed. The dogs owners — Andrew Nason and Julie Custer — pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of failure to control dogs.
