Salina, Kansas, rejects pit bull ban; pit bull breeder killed in Georgia

56.4% of Salina voters said “We don’t want pit bull mayhem”

SALINA, Kansas; SNELLVILLE, Georgia––Voters in Salina, Kansas on February 24, 2026 in a special mail-in election rejected an attempt to repeal the pit bull ban.

A thousand miles to the southeast, an apparently fatal attack on a pit bull breeder that morning highlighted the reasons why.

“Pit bulls will remain banned in Salina after city residents vote ‘No’ on an ordinance to lift the ban,” reports Charles Rankin for the Salina Journal.

“Unofficial results of the mail-in election,” which will be formally accepted by the Salina city council on March 2, 2026, “show 5,329 ‘No’ votes and 4,123 ‘Yes’ votes on the ordinance.

“That means about 56.4% of the 9,425 voters chose to keep the ban,” Rankin calculated.

“The ordinance will continue to be enforced”

The official statement from the City of Salina confirmed, “We have received the unofficial results of the mail-in election.

The mail-in election response rate of 29.8% was significantly higher than the 22% response rate in the 2025 county election in Saline County.

Pit bull advocates have collected about 1,500 signatures on a petition to put the pit bull ban before the voters.

Dismiss the leader of the rebellious campaign

“The decision to continue the ban stands for at least 10 years before the city can revisit the issue,” said Lily O’Brien for KAKE television news in Wichita.

But Tyler Sartain, “who, along with Debrah Corrales, led the effort to put” the repeal ordinance on the ballot, according to Rankin in Salina Journalshowed little inclination to obey the ordinance.

“Salina never lost the dogs, until now,” Sartain stated in a Facebook post.

“There is no part of the fence”

Enacted by the Salina city council on June 28, 2004, the pit bull ordinance, now up for voter approval, “prohibits the bringing of pit bulls into the city and restricts the ownership of existing ones. Salina Journal reporter Darrin Stineman said ANIMALS 24-7 at the time of passing.

“There’s nothing about fencing,” Stineman said, “probably because one of our worst attacks involves dogs digging under the fence.”

Caitlyn Forsberg & Osh Kosh, by gosh

In that attack, three-year-old Caitlyn Forsberg on May 4, 2004 suffered a severe bite on the face from two pit bulls kept by neighbor Christopher Stone.

Caitlyn Forsberg’s father, Ryan Forsberg, told Sharon Montague on Salina Journal that their eight-year-old golden retriever Osh Gosh ran to Caitlyn’s rescue, distracting the pit bulls with a counterattack, “allowing Caitlyn to break free and run, screaming, into the house,” Montague wrote.

Caitlyn Forsberg’s injuries required three hours of emergency surgery.

Osh Gosh, although bitten, escaped serious injury.

“If it wasn’t for him, it might have been worse than it was,” Ryan Forsberg told Montague. “Now he’s a hero in our family.”

Pit bull owner Stone on July 14, 2004 was convicted of five related misdemeanors.

It’s the fifth time voters have talked to pit bulls

The Salina pit bull ban repeal attempt is the fifth time the pit bull ban has been put before the voters.

A 1989 pit bull ban in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in August 2012 was supported by 67% of voters, but was subsequently not implemented as written. Non-enforcement has contributed to at least four human deaths by pit bulls called “American bullies” to evade Miami-Dade’s ordinance.

Miami-Dade’s ordinance was repealed in 2023 by a state law that prohibited race-specific legislation, which was not put before voters.

(See Repeal of Miami-Dade pit bull ban brings 1st fatality in just 78 days.)

Sixty-eight percent of the voter turnout in Aurora, Colorado, supported the pit bull ban that was also originally adopted in 1989, but the Aurora city council in 2021 still repealed the ban. A five-year-old boy was mauled to the face by a pit bull in Aurora just 21 days ago.

(See Five-year-old child mauled by pit bull 21 days after Aurora ban lifted.)

Springfield voters repeal pit bull ban but keep restrictions in place

Pit bull advocates succeeded, however, in repealing a pit bull ban in Springfield, Missouri in 2018, voting with 68% of the vote, while leaving in effect a pit bull registration ordinance enacted in 2006, which requires pit bull and pit bull mix owners to be microchipped, vaccinated or vaccinated, and all must be vaccinated. times.

Denver repeals pit bull ban in 2020

Then in 2020 pit bull advocates won 64% of the vote to repeal the pit bull ban in Denver, Colorado.

Like neighboring Aurora’s ordinance, the Denver pit bull ban has been in effect since 1989, adopted three years after a neighbor’s pit bull killed 3-year-old Fernando Salazar in southwest Denver in October 1986.

Denver during the years that the pit bull ban was in effect was the only US city large enough to have major league baseball, football, and basketball teams without a pit bull attack fatality.

Mynoviah Tinsley

Salina county clerk and election official Jamie Doss, assisted by staff members Jessica McGee and Lori Trow, was still receiving ballots on the morning of February 24, 2026 when Jonathan Raymond of Atlanta’s WXIA television news reported the death of Mynoviah Tinsley, 43, found at her home in Snellville, an area east of DeKalbever police said was covered in Atlanta. blood.”

Updated Reeves Jackson and Cody Alcorn for WXIA a day later, “The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that 43-year-old Mynoviah Tinsley’s death was an accident, saying she was mauled to death by dogs and died by exsanguination (severe blood loss) ‘due to multiple penetrating and avulsive injuries.’

“The LifeLine Animal Project has confirmed that it has received 15 dogs connected to the Snellville case,” Jackson and Alcorn continued.

“LLBBKennel”

Jackson and Alcorn mention that Mynoviah Tinsley was born in Columbus, Georgia, and became “a licensed clinical mental health counselor and licensed clinical addictions specialist in North Carolina, a licensed professional counselor in Georgia, and a certified professional counselor in Nevada.”

What Jackson, Alcorn, and Chris Spargo in an account of the death of Mynoviah Tinsley posted by People The magazine doesn’t mention that Mynoviah Tinsley and her husband Joe Tinsley are pit bull breeders––apparently failed pit bull breeders, their Facebook posts show, with chain link backyard kennels full of pit bulls and possibly pit bull/Catahoula leopard dog mixed breeds that they can’t sell and ultimately can’t even give away.

The Tinsleys, who also keep rats, do business as “LLBBKennel.”

“Mynoviah Not Mira”

Mynoviah Tinsley posts updates on Facebook about their pit bulls under the screen name “Mynoviah NotMira.”

Posts about the pit bulls that may have killed him include, on March 21, 2025, “Bully/pit puppies for sale,” which featured “mother” and “father” pit bulls with 10 pit bull puppies.

Another photo of several pit bull puppies appeared on May 7, 2025, with the text “Accepting deposits LLBBKennel.”

On June 18, 2025, the message was “There are bullies.”

In September/October 2025, “LLBBKennel” posted a video of a pit bull attacking a tire, captioned “I can’t help but smoke.

“They NEED new homes”

There is also a video of “Daddy and his babies,” which shows pit bulls fighting or playing.

Soon came a video of five pit bull puppies. “Fingers crossed. Both should leave now,” the text read.

By September 19, 2025, the message was, “They NEED new homes. Contact Llbbkennel.”

On February 5, 2026, “LLBB Kennel” posted a drawing showing four pit bulls inside a prison-like chain link fence covered in barbed wire.

That foreshadows the current incarceration of 15 pit bulls and pit bull mixes under quarantine at the Lifeline Animal Project shelter.

But first came a Valentine’s Day 2026 posting describing four of the remaining dogs as “XL Bullies,” saying that on February 15, 2026 the Tinsleys “will have to give them up.”

If any of the Tinsley pit bulls were surrendered anywhere, it was clearly their fault.

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