DES MOINES, Iowa -- A growing number of communities in Iowa and elsewhere are toughening restrictions on dangerous animals while moving away from breed-specific bans, a Des Moines Register review has found.

Officials in Ankeny, Iowa, last year revamped a dog ordinance after 38 bite cases involving a variety of breeds in 2011. The new law focuses on a dog's behavior because of the gray area involved in mixed breeds and proof of a canine's lineage, Police Chief Gary Mikulec said.

"How do you prove that in court, short of doing DNA testing?" Mikulec said. " Who bears the expense of that?"

This week in Prairie City, an American Staffordshire terrier bit a 4-year-old girl in the neck, causing fatal injuries. The girl's death reignited debate about whether the various varieties of pit bulls should be banned from cities.

Prairie City's ordinances do not ban specific breeds of dogs. However, a city official this week said Prairie City's animal ordinances would be reviewed.

Communities across the country have adopted tougher standards for how people handle their animals -- such as tougher poop-scooping ordinances, animal cruelty laws and regulations restricting dogs that run loose, according to Don Cleary of the National Canine Research Council.

"Enforcement of those rules may be very selective," Cleary said. "Most animal control agencies aren't very well-funded."

Since Ankeny's new ordinance went into effect, approximately eight dogs have been declared dangerous or vicious animals, officials said. Owners of those dogs now must take steps to comply with multiple rules, including keeping the dog kenneled, posting warning signs about the dangerous animal and supplying a $150,000 single-limit liability insurance policy. None of those dogs now resides in the city.

"We've found we've imposed such strong restrictions with animals with a history of a bite that people that own those dogs essentially get rid of them," Mikulec said. "They don't want to abide by all the safeguards that are in place. They couldn't prevent their dog from biting the first time."

Earlier this year in Newton, officials revamped that community's dangerous-dog ordinance after instances in which dogs attacked and killed other animals, Police Chief Jeff Hoebelheinrich said.

City rules were rewritten to add an extra $50 license fee for animals declared vicious. In addition, those dogs must have an identity microchip inserted beneath their skin, and euthanasia is now considered for dogs prone to violence.

"The unfortunate thing is that most of it is reactive," Hoebelheinrich said Wednesday. "It only changes things once a dog has become vicious."

Even with changes, most community's laws aren't tough enough, say some area animal control officials.

"Unfortunately, a lot of cities are more reactive than proactive, absolutely," said Stephanie Filer of the Animal Rescue League in Des Moines.

Kandi Reindl, assistant to Des Moines' city manager, said most Des Moines-area communities adopted some form of the regional ordinance, which generally places restrictions on dog owners after initial signs that animals might be too aggressive.

Dogs who attack usually are seized by the authorities and returned only after owners agree to obtain at least $100,000 of liability insurance and to keep the animal contained. Subsequent incidents, or any kinds of serious injuries caused by the animals, generally are met by a push for euthanasia.

"What was happening was a dog was being declared vicious by a community, and then it had to be taken out of the community," Reindl said. "But then a problem dog would be passed from one city to the next, which wasn't good for anybody."

Colleen Lynn of Austin, Texas, president and founder of DogsBite.org, said her organization started tracking breed-specific ordinances in the United States about six months ago. The group, which has had the accuracy of its data questioned by other organizations, found that nearly one-third of the more than 600 ordinances that banned specific breeds of dogs were in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.

"That's also why you don't see a lot of fatal dog attacks coming out of that region," Lynn said.

Lynn agrees with arguments that breed-specific laws do not reduce the number of dog bites. But she stresses the need for pit bull bans anyway.

"It's not meant to lower all dog bites in a city," Lynn said. "When it comes to lowering pit bull maulings, you bet those ordinances are good. When these laws are put in place and enforced, those mauling numbers and those death numbers drop."

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