COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Ohio law that that labeled every pit bull in the state as a vicious dog has been muzzled by a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. John Kasich.

The new law, House Bill 14, will wipe out a 25-year-old statute that declared pit bulls to be inherently vicious animals. The law takes effect in 90 days.

It addition to throwing a juicy legal bone to pit bulls, the new law redefines designations of "vicious" and "dangerous" while creating a third category of canine offender: "nuisance" dog.

Under the law, vicious dogs are those that without provocation have killed or caused serious injury to any person. A dangerous dog is one that has caused injury to any person without provocation or killed another dog. Nuisance dogs are those that have chased or menaced a person or attempted to bite a person.

Owners of dangerous dogs -- or dog owners who have three convictions for failing to properly confine a dog -- must obtain liability insurance in some cases, under the law.

Supporters of the legislation, which included country music legend Willie Nelson, called Ohio's old law "archaic" and said that pit bulls should be judged on an individual basis instead of all declared as dangerous.

Opponents of the bill were primarily urban lawmakers who said that pit bulls were the breed of choice for dogfighting and guarding drug houses.