Animal ordinance revisited by council
Council members and city department heads met for a committee meeting of the whole Thursday, March 4, to discuss an amendment to the city ordinance governing dogs trying to provide a means to enforce the city’s ordinance about dangerous dogs.
An ordinance (Ord. 704) to amend the city’s original animal ordinance was heard for its first reading at the Tuesday, Feb. 16, City Council meeting. An ordinance must be read three times before it’s approved. The readings can take place in the same meeting or separate meetings.
The new ordinance was written by city attorney Shane Perry with input from council member Ginger Larsen and Police Chief Lynn Hahn. Larsen was prompted to request the ordinance by a complaint from a city resident, Justin Eldridge, who said his family pet was killed by his neighbor’s dogs that dug a hole under the fence separating the properties.
Eldridge, in an email to the mayor, chief of police and City Council members, expressed concern about his neighbors dogs that he said killed his dog and had “breached our fence and entered onto our property” three times. He said the neighbor’s dogs entered his home through a dog door. He said he was able to chase them out.
Eldridge wrote: “My goal in all of this is to hopefully get the city ordinance changed so that if something like happens again to someone else that the person who owns the dogs who attack and or possibly kill another have no choice but to get rid of the dogs or have them euthanized. We now have one dog left in our household but with all the trauma he has experienced involving their dogs he won’t hardly go outside in our backyard as he is afraid of being attacked. I will be honest with those dogs being next door I do not feel safe in my own backyard and I don’t feel safe letting my own child go play in the backyard fearing that he may possibly get attacked by their dogs and that is something I should not have to worry about.”
Police received a report Jan. 23 from Eldridge about the dogs attacking his dog. When police arrived on the scene, the neighbor’s dogs were on their own property. Police cited the dogs’ owner with two counts of dog at large since the dogs had left their property.
On Sunday, Jan. 24, police contacted the dogs’ owner and explained the city ordinance and the dangerous animal notification, according to the police report.
On Friday, Jan. 29, police received confirmation from a veterinarian that both dogs had
been euthanized, according to the report.
According to Pea Ridge Police Department records, there are no other incidents reported by Eldridge.
Police Chief Lynn Hahn explained to Council members that if the dogs are on their own property when police arrive at the scene, there is nothing he can legally do about removing the animals without a court order.
City Council member Merrill White expressed concern that the proposed ordinance amendment was too much. He also expressed concern about the city dealing in matters that should be a civil matter not a criminal matter.
Hahn said that with the current ordinance, the dogs in question could be considered dangerous and be required to be kept in secure housing, but did not provide authority for him to seize the dogs if the owners were not abiding by the law.
“Right now, if there is truly a dangerous animal, if it’s back home, there’s nothing we can do,” Hahn said. “It’s a rare thing. This is the first time I’ve come across this.”
White reiterated, “The gist of it is we want to give the police the right to be able to access private property and take possession of an animal that a neighbor says is a nuisance or vicious.”
The proposed ordinance also increases fees for dog license.
“I’m totally against increased fees,” Sandy Button, city clerk, said. “We’ve never been about making money. We just want to be sure they all have rabies shots. We’re not trying to make money off it.”
“That wasn’t me,” Larsen said. “I didn’t write the ordinance.”
“So, how do we come to an agreement that this is a but much?” White asked.
“You didn’t need to rewrite the book,” Tony Townsend, building official said.
“Our goal from the very beginning … was just to give teeth to allow the police to make decisions,” Larsen. “My intention was just to be sure we can protect our citizens from a vicious animal.”
Mayor Jackie Crabtree said he, Hahn and Larsen would get with the city attorney to “trim some of this back.”