Salina, Kansas rejects pit bull ban repeal; 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 attempted repeal of a pit bull ban.

A thousand miles southeast,  an apparent fatal attack on a pit bull breeder that morning underscored the reasons why.

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

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

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

“Ordinance will continue to be enforced”

Affirmed an official statement from the City of Salina,  “We have received the unofficial results of the mail-in election.  The existing ordinance prohibiting the pit bull breed within the city limits of Salina remains in effect and will continue to be enforced.”

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

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

Repeal campaign leader defiant

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

But Tyler Sartain,  “who,  along with Debrah Corrales, led the effort to place” the repeal ordinance on the ballot,  according to Rankin of the Salina Journal,  evinced little inclination to observe the ordinance.

“Salina will never be rid of these dogs,  ever,”  Sartain declared in a Facebook posting.

“Nothing about fence confinement”

Enacted by the Salina city council on June 28,  2004,  the pit bull ordinance,  now upheld by the voters, “bans bringing pit bulls into the city and restricted possession of those already there.  The ordinance requires that pit bulls cannot be outside unless leashed by an adult or inside a secure kennel,   Salina Journal reporter Darrin Stineman told ANIMALS 24-7 at the time of passage.

“There is nothing about fence confinement,”  Stineman mentioned,  “possibly because one of our worst attacks involved dogs digging under a fence.”

Caitlyn Forsberg & Osh Kosh,  by gosh

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

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

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

Osh Gosh,  though bitten,  escaped serious harm.

“If it wasn’t for him, it probably would have been a lot worse than it is,”  Ryan Forsberg told Montague.  “Right now he’s kind of the hero of our family.”

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

Fifth time voters have addressed pit bulls

The attempted Salina pit bull ban repeal was the fifth time a pit bull ban has been put before voters.

A 1989 pit bull ban in Miami-Dade County,  Florida,  was in August 2012 upheld by 67% of the electorate,  but was subsequently not enforced as written.  Non-enforcement contributed to at least four human deaths by pit bulls going by the name “American bully” to evade the Miami-Dade ordinance.

The Miami-Dade ordinance was repealed in 2023 by a state law forbidding breed-specific legislation,  which was not put before the electorate.

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

Sixty-eight percent of the voter turnout in Aurora,  Colorado,  upheld a pit bull ban also originally adopted in 1989,  but the Aurora city council in 2021 repealed the ban anyway.  A five-year-old child was facially disfigured by a pit bull in Aurora just 21 days later.

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

Springfield voters scrapped pit bull ban but kept restrictions

Pit bull advocates succeeded,  however,  in repealing a pit bull ban in Springfield,  Missouri in 2018,  polling 68% of the vote,  while leaving in effect a pit bull registration ordinance enacted in 2006,  which requires the owners of pit bulls and pit bull mixes to have them microchipped,  spayed or neutered,  vaccinated,  and identified with a registration tag which must be worn at all times.

Denver repealed pit bull ban in 2020

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

Like the ordinance in neighboring Aurora,  the Denver pit bull ban had 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 the pit bull ban was in effect was the only U.S. city big enough to have major league baseball,  football,  and basketball teams which did not have a pit bull attack fatality.

Mynoviah Tinsley

Salina county clerk and election officer Jamie Doss,  assisted by staff members Jessica McGee and Lori Trow,  were still receiving ballots on the morning of February 24,  2026 when Jonathan Raymond of WXIA television news in Atlanta reported the death of Mynoviah Tinsley,  43,  found at her home in Snellville,  an eastern Atlanta suburb,  among what DeKalb County police said were “several dogs covered in what appears to be blood.”

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

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

“LLBBKennel”

Jackson and Alcorn mentioned that Mynoviah Tinsley was born in Columbus, Georgia,  and had become “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 Mynoviah Tinsley’s death posted by People magazine did not mention was that Mynoviah Tinsley and her husband Joe Tinsley were pit bull breeders––apparently failed pit bull breeders,  their Facebook postings indicated,  with chain link backyard kennels full of pit bulls and possible pit bull/Catahoula leopard dog mixed breeds they were unable to sell and eventually even unable to give away.

The Tinsleys,  who also kept pet rats,  did business as “LLBBKennel.”

“Mynoviah NotMira”

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

Postings about the pit bulls who may have killed her include,  on March 21,  2025,  “Bully/pit puppies for sale,”  showing “mother” and “father” pit bulls with 10 pit bull puppies.

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

On June 18,  2025,  the message was “Bullies available.”

Circa September/October 2025,  “LLBBKennel” posted a video of a pit bull attacking a tire swing,  captioned “I produce nothing but smoke.  If I can’t count on nobody in the world,  I know for sure I can count on my dogs.”

“They NEED new homes”

There was also a video of “Daddy and his babies,”  showing pit bulls either fighting or engaged in rough play.

Soon afterward came a video of five pit bull puppies.  “Fingers crossed.  Two should be leaving today,”  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 topped with barbed wire.

That presaged the present incarceration of the 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,”  alleging that on February 15,  2026 the Tinsleys would “have to surrender them.”

If any of the Tinsley pit bulls were surrendered anywhere,  they were obviously the wrong ones.

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