State rules for keeping dangerous dogs aren’t tough enough for urban areas, the Renton City Council decided before banning the menacing pets.

“Could you really design a perfectly safe way to keep a (dangerous) dog in a crowded urban environment?” said council member Randy Corman. “You can commit to enforcing the law, but you’ll have accidents, because to err is human.”

A neighborhood community asked for a ban, after hearing word that a dangerous dog owner from Snohomish County was considering a move to Renton, said Jay Covington, the city’s chief administrative officer.

In past years the city has seen serious dog attacks, including the death of a 5-year-old child in 1994.

However, most dogs that have attacked in Renton haven’t been declared dangerous, because most are euthanized before a declaration is made, said Renton animal-control officer Dennis McAskill.

“With the majority of the ones I have destroyed over the years, it was deserved; these were nasty dogs,” he said.

A “dangerous dog” declaration isn’t based on a dog’s breed, but on a history of aggressive behavior, he said.

“Any dog, if it’s mistreated, not socialized properly or not enclosed properly, can be a danger,” Corman said. “We want to be really clear, whether you own a labrador or a poodle or a pit bull that you need to take precautions and proper care.”

Dogs are declared dangerous when they either kill a domestic animal without provocation or seriously injure or kill a human without provocation.

If a dog threatens or bites a human or domesticated animal, but doesn’t cause serious harm, it can be declared “potentially dangerous.” Then if it causes a minor injury again, it can also be declared dangerous.

After animal control explains the risk of having a potentially dangerous dogs, some owners decide to take their dogs to the pound to be euthanized, he said.

A Renton dog was declared dangerous in December after killing two dogs and mangling another, McAskill said.

After interviewing neighbors, he learned that the dog had been causing problems on a daily basis.

“Had somebody called us and informed us…we might have been able to alleviate the problem,” he said.

The owners are now in the appeal process to the dangerous-dog declaration.

Most Renton pet owners couldn’t afford the $250,000 surety bond or insurance policy required to keep a dangerous dog by state law, McAskill said.

The dogs were also required to be kept in secured pins, which children cannot easily access.

“The old way of dealing with it, requiring people to have liability insurance and to have an enclosure, were not protective enough,” Corman said.

The City Council decided to ban the dogs instead of better enforcing old laws, because accidents have happened.

“The evidence is that it’s too easy for people to make a mistake, even if they’re intending to keep the law,” Corman said.

The law was passed quickly with a first and second reading Dec. 7.

At the time the law was drafted, there weren’t any dangerous dogs in the city, said city attorney Larry Warren.

It’s technically illegal to bring a dangerous dog into the city limits, including on the freeway, though it’s expected that an officer use discretion if people are passing through, Warren said.

“It’s only possible for it to come up if an owner lost possession of it (a dangerous dog) and it was running around,” he said.