German shepherd dog

COLUMBUS — A new law goes into effect this month that will put more responsibility on dog owners and give dog wardens more latitude to deal with troublesome animals.

In mid-December, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 247, also known as Avery’s Law. The bill is named for Avery Russell, a 12-year-old girl from Franklin County, who suffered severe injuries from an attack by two vicious dogs in 2024.

The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Kevin Miller, R-Buckeye Lake, of Licking County in southern Ohio.

Miller told The Vindicator his bill is not intended to punish responsible dog owners or well-meaning dogs defending themselves or their homes.

“That basically boils down to provoked or unprovoked attacks, and my bill only deals with provoked cases,” Miller said. “If the dog is protecting itself or its home or family, then that is not the issue we’re concerned with. The biggest issue is when a dog gets out or is off its leash and attacks someone for no reason.”

The law more clearly defines the legal terms for designating a dog as “dangerous” or “vicious” and effectively gives dog wardens the authority to immediately seize all vicious dogs and gives them more latitude to make judgments about seizing dangerous ones.

Miller’s expert for drafting the bill was Licking County Dog Warden Larry Williams.

“We were running into more and more designations where we thought that something needed to change, in terms of having the laws clarified,” Williams said.

Different counties in Ohio tend to interpret dog laws differently, he said, and some give dog wardens more authority than others to seize dangerous dogs.

“Our county was not interpreting it that way, so we were having to leave dogs that we’d have preferred to take. If the owner had it confined by the time we got there, we’d have to let them keep it. Avery’s law says that if we designate it vicious, we’re going to take it, and that requires an unprovoked attack with serious injuries or a fatality.”

The definition of a dangerous dog, on the other hand, now includes any dog that has caused less than serious injury to a person, killed another dog, or is the subject of a third violation of confinement laws. Avery’s law also requires owners of dangerous dogs to keep $100,000 in liability insurance and mandates stricter confinement and registration for designated dogs.

Williams said that if they determine that a dangerous dog’s owner cannot safely or responsibly keep the dog from being a threat to the public, the warden can seize it.

The new law goes into effect March 18.

Williams said common sense is all that is required for dog owners to protect their pets and / or protect the public from their pets.

“There are people that own dogs, who know they aren’t friendly, and that’s fine,” he said. “We all think of them as family, but really they are personal property and they are an animal that can bite, and you have to take precautions.”

He said owners should always make efforts to socialize their dogs but do so properly, keep them on a leash so they can be well controlled, and license the dogs.

“If a dog gets loose and is not licensed and we’ve never dealt with it, that makes it much harder to get the dog back to its owner,” Williams said.

He said people who encounter stray dogs, or even those on leashes, should always take reasonable precautions.

“It’s an animal. If it feels threatened, it’s fight or flight, and if it can’t get away it will go through you, not around you,” he said.

Trumbull County Dog Warden Matthew Dubon said he is still having discussions with his employees about how to handle it.

“The biggest thing is it’s a new law, so we’re going to see how to actually implement it,” he said.

“Before, when a bite happened, we could not really show up to someone’s house and confiscate their personal property [the dog]. We’d have to just put the animal on a 10-day bite hold at the residence while the case was reviewed.”

Dubon said Ohio dog wardens operate solely under the requirements of Ohio Revised Code, and his office and employees will follow whatever the law requires of them.

“We’re going to figure it out as we go forward,” he said.