Amanda Kearney calls her dogs her "children." Wentzville police call them "pit bulls." For Kearney, that's a problem.

The city prohibits pit bulls, including mixed breed pit bulls, from being outside a kennel unless the dogs are leashed and muzzled.

"Nothing makes a dog more aggressive than shoving a muzzle on its face six times a day to take it outside to go to the bathroom," she said.

Kearney, 25, lives in Wentzville with her husband, Mike Kearney, and their two dogs, Harley and Belle. Kearney said the 1-year-old litter mates are Great Dane mixes. They might be part pit bull, but only a blood test could determine for sure.

Kearney said she made the mistake of calling them pit bulls mixes on her Facebook profile one year ago. A neighbor discovered the Facebook post and notified police.

It was not the first time animal control officers had responded to neighbors' concerns about the dogs. Previously, ambiguity about the dogs' breed spared them from enforcement. But now that Kearney had identified them online as "pit bulls," officers told her she had to comply with the law.

Dogs regulate their body temperature through panting rather than sweating. They cannot pant with their mouths closed, she said.

Besides requiring muzzles and leashes, city ordinances dictate the dogs must be confined indoors or in a securely enclosed and locked pen or kennel. If the dog is inside a house, the windows must be closed.

"I could have a rapist living next door that had more freedom than my dogs do," Kearney said. "The rapist can walk up and down the street all day. My dogs can't without a muzzle."

Kearney contacted Wentzville officials, asking them to review what she considered overly restrictive laws targeting pit bulls.

Alderman Chris Gard, Ward 2, agreed the ordinances should be changed. Gard said he spent a month researching pit bull laws and gathering information from veterinarians, animal control officers and Wentzville residents. He drafted a series of proposed revisions and presented them to his fellow aldermen Nov. 16.

"Let's have a substantive debate on the issue and see if we can write a better policy," Gard said during the meeting.

The aldermen agreed to discuss changing the pit bull ordinances during a work session scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 7 at City Hall, 310 W. Pearce Blvd.

Gard said he wants pit bulls to be able to run free in fenced yards. He said enclosing them in pens and kennels is inhumane. But he does not want dogs roaming unsecured, he said. He proposed increasing penalties against owners who allow their dogs to run free throughout the neighborhood.

Gard said he wants to eliminate the part of the law pertaining to mixed breeds. He said it would be impossible to enforce the law, as it would require DNA testing of every dog in Wentzville to determine whether it is part pit bull.

"With the information we have today, it is difficult to write breed-specific laws," Gard said. "It is much easier to write better laws that are not breed specific. I think the board will see that in our discussion."

Alderman Nick Guccione, Ward 3, said he thought breed-specific laws were wrong.

"There are some vicious pit bulls, but there are also vicious Rottweilers and Great Danes," he said. "I was bit by a German shepherd when I was 13. Does that mean we should restrict German shepherds?"

Interim Police Chief Kevin Pyatt said six pit bull bites were reported in Wentzville during 2010 and 2011. Three were full pit bull breeds and three were pit bull mixes, he said. This, out of a total of 104 reported animal bites or scratches during the same two-year period, he said. Of these, 80 were inflicted by dogs, 23 by cats and one by a raccoon, he said.

Lab mixes inflicted the most bites — six during two years, Pyatt said. He said police recorded four bites from Labrador Retrievers.

Pyatt said animal control officers rely on their professional experience to determine whether a dog is a full or part pit bull, and thus subject to the city's pit bull ordinances. He said determining the breed can be tricky, even for a veterinarian using DNA testing.

Pyatt said it is up to the aldermen to decide whether to change laws requiring muzzles and leashes. But the sections pertaining to pens and kennels need revision, if only because they conflict with other laws, he said. City building codes prohibit structures of the height and materials outlined in the pit bull ordinances, he said.

About 30 people attended the Nov. 16 Board of Aldermen meeting to show their support for changing the laws. One of them, Amy Conner, moved to Wentzville in July with her husband and their two mixed-breed pit bulls, 5-year-old Jack and 8-year-old Gypsy.

"They are sweethearts," said Conner, 33. "We don't have kids yet, so these are our kids. They are big babies."

Conner said she and her husband are prepared to move out of Wentzville if the laws are not changed. She said the laws have created a "nightmare" for her family.

"Our neighbors targeted us from the minute they knew we had pit bulls," she said.

Conner said a neighbor called police because her husband left a window open while he was painting inside. The window had a screen and was 10 feet above the ground, she said. The neighbor complained that one of her dogs was outside on a deck, but the deck was 20 feet off the ground and had no steps, Conner said.

"My dogs have never done anything to anyone," she said. "It's not fair that innocent dogs are being punished just because they were born with pit bull mix in them."

Conner's neighbors see things differently. Joel and Patti Budnik and their three children live next door. Before the Conners moved in, the Budniks dealt with another pit bull owner in the same house.

Patti Budnik said the previous pit bull escaped from the house or broke loose from its chain several times. She said she and her husband talked to the owners about controlling their dog, but they seemed to think it was "no big deal." The last straw came when the dog cornered her husband in their backyard and charged at some kids, Budnik said. They asked the city to take action. The owners finally gave the dog away, she said.

When the Conners moved in, they brought new pit bull problems, Budnik said. They would walk their dogs without muzzles, she said. Recalling the incident with the open window, Budnik said one of the dogs was behind the window, barking at her husband as he mowed the grass. It then ran outside onto the deck. Budnik said she thought the dog was capable of jumping off the deck or over the fence, though it had done neither.

"We don't hate pit bulls," Budnik said. "But the law was made for a reason. The law is keeping your dog safe and it is keeping other people safe. The law works for the good of the community as a whole."