Six months after a pit bull allegedly attacked and killed another dog in a Bothell neighborhood, Bothell City Council is once more debating tightening its rules regarding vicious dogs.

After a discussion at a council meeting earlier this month, Mayor Mark Lamb said there seemed to be broad agreement among local legislators against any breed-specific rules or outright bans.

What council does seem to want, he said, is to make it a lot more difficult — and, apparently, costly — to keep dogs that have hurt people or possibly other dogs.

“If you have a dog that hurts somebody, it’s going to be harder for you to keep that dog,” Lamb said.

According to Lamb and others, some ways of accomplishing the city’s aims include strengthening its leash laws and, perhaps most importantly, requiring the owners of dogs proven dangerous to buy and maintain high levels of insurance.

In October, council’s safety committee began looking at revising Bothell’s laws regarding vicious dogs. The topic seemed to be set aside for a time, but was revived last month at the request of Councilwoman Tris Samberg.

According to Lamb, one reason for any perceived delays has been questions surrounding who is going to provide the city with animal control services in the coming years.

The city currently contracts with King County for animal services. But county officials sometime ago announced the coming closure of their animal shelter. At one time, King County also was looking at doing away with all animal control as a means of reducing its budget.

In January, Bothell Deputy City Manager Steve Anderson said local staffers have been looking at the issue of animal control since at least late last year. After the more recent discussion of the Bothell’s vicious-dog rules, Lamb said there still is no clear picture of what King County might do regarding animal control, so what Bothell needs to do is up in the air, as well.

The alleged dog attack that spurred the current conversations occurred in August. A resident of 241st Street Southeast, Diana Selin, was walking her dog Ty when, according to a number of sources, a neighbor’s pit bull attacked Selin’s dog. Selin told the Reporter she tried to pull the animals apart, but was unsuccessful.

Ty died during surgery. The pit bull was later destroyed.