The city of Lincoln is moving toward a crackdown on dangerous and menacing dogs, with proposed changes to law that would require more dogs to be microchipped and no longer allow dogs to roam at large on owners' property.

About 35,000 dogs are licensed in Lincoln and so far this year, 339 dog bites have been reported to the Animal Control Division of the Health Department. Three hundred forty dogs in the city are classified as potentially dangerous and 89 are considered dangerous. Seven have been euthanized because they were vicious.

A run of recent pitbull bites has City Council members anxious to see legislation to get tougher with the owners of dangerous dogs. The city-county Health Department has draft changes that would:

• Prohibit dangerous dogs from moving into Lincoln from elsewhere.
• Raise the license fee for "unaltered" animals (those that have not been spayed or neutered) from $34 to $50. The fee for animals that have been spayed or neutered would stay at $17. Last year, 82 percent of reported dog bites were committed by unaltered dogs.
• Prohibit dogs from running at-large on an owner's property under an owner's verbal control. They would have to be leashed, tethered or fenced in. So far this year, 35 bites and 25 attacks were committed by dogs supposedly under an owner's verbal control.
• Require dogs classified as "potentially dangerous" to be microchipped. Now, only dangerous dogs must have microchips implanted.
• Allow owners to be cited when bites are inflicted by dogs that haven't already been declared dangerous -- even on the first bite. Now, only police can cite an owner under state statute.
• Revoke animal licenses after four convictions within 12 months, rather than the seven now allowed in a year. Some City Council members would like to see that tightened to two in a year and three in two years.

Councilman John Spatz does not want to target a specific breed (pitbulls), but wants to target large, menacing, aggressive dogs that are terrorizing some neighborhoods.

"What can we do to make mad dog owners more accountable?" he asked health officials, suggesting insurance and licensing requirements. "If one dog can terrorize a neighborhood, what we can do?"

Councilman Doug Emery said when he was Lincoln's postmaster, postal carriers were rarely bitten by the dogs you'd suspect.

"We rarely ever got bit by a big dog," he said. "It was the chihuahuas."

Judy Halstead of the Health Department said dogs of 81 breeds bit people last year. Health Department head Bruce Dart said if a pitbull is aggressive, it's because an owner promotes it, and "the goal is to go after them."

But big dog bites are more destructive, Spatz said. He said some people use pitbulls as a status symbol and want them to look menacing.

"We could have a death," he said. "I don't see a chihuahua terrorizing a neighborhood."

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.