Ballot Question 3A asks Aurora voters whether they should repeal the pit bull ban

Aurora’s decades-long debate over whether to ban pit bulls may finally find resolution in the Nov. 5 election, when voters will have the final say on whether the controversial dog breed should be legal in Colorado’s third-largest city.

The Aurora City Council presented Ballot Question 3A to voters earlier this year. Certain types of the breed were legalized for ownership within city limits by elected city leaders three years ago.

However, that decision was challenged in court by a resident who claimed that only voters, not the City Council, could overturn the city’s previous pit bull ban. A judge agreed in March, ruling that only voters had the right to change the policy because voters in a 2014 citywide election chose to uphold the ban.

Aurora is one of the last remaining Colorado communities still considering the status of pit bulls, which have been implicated in several attacks on humans over the years. Most notably, in 2005, a 10-year-old Aurora boy was mauled by three pit bulls in his backyard. He lost his left arm and suffered facial injuries.

The city had passed a pit bull ban just a week before the attack.

What would 3A do if it passed?

A yes vote would repeal the city’s breed-specific ban and allow people in Aurora to keep three species of pit bulls – the American pit bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier and the Staffordshire bull terrier – within city limits.

What have other metropolises done?

Denver lifted its 30-year-old pit bull ban in 2020 with a vote at the ballot box. Castle Rock did the same two years earlier. Commerce City and Lone Tree also recently abolished pit bull bans.