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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Animal control has been a topic of discussion among Fulton residents and city leaders for months following a string of dog attacks earlier this spring.
Numerous citizens stood up at council meetings to voice their opinions on the topic, there was a series of public forums and a committee comprised of residents and city officials worked together to create a new animal control ordinance — with a heavier emphasis on owner responsibility — which was shot down at the Aug. 9 meeting.
Recently, three of the cases that initially sparked that long and sometimes heated debate resulted in significant fines for the individuals responsible for the dogs.
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Comments
Advocator 1 year, 9 months ago
Several days ago I wrote >> "If the prosecuting attorney does not have the time, will, understanding, or intestinal fortitude to enforce the present ordinance it will be for naught". I was incorrect in that statement and I am happy to apologize to the city atttorney. In my opinion you did a great job and I agree the cap should be raised to $1000. Keep in mind that it has been almost twenty years since the present ordinance cap was set.
I do not like to be redundant. but I feel like I must reiterate some of my other comments that follow>>>>>"I do, however, think there were some positive changes in the proposed ordinance. For the good of all I ask the mayor to get the animal control ordinance committee to continue their work. Just this month a man lost an arm (AZ) and a pregnant women died (CA) in dog attacks so let us not miss this opportunity to put in place an ordinance that could make a difference. Find out what changes are needed so a majority of the council members could vote in favor of it. According to Les Hudson, over 80% of the present ordinance is the same as the proposed one. Maybe incorporating their changes into the present ordinance without throwing the old ordinance out would work. This needs to be a win win situation for everyone.
Committee members talked about educating dog owners. I don’t think you can use threats and heavy handed fines to educate anyone. If you know anything about training (educating) dogs, you should know that these methods do not work. Rewards for things done correctly are the best techniques to get the best results. Make the registration fee onetime of $20.00 if the dog is spayed or neutered, micro-chipped, and a rabies shot up to date. If all three of these requirements are not done for this onetime fee then you must register every year. Which is the greater problem a dog running loose or one that is in his own yard but doesn’t have a license? Should the fines be the same for each? Ask yourselves, how could we set up a fine and registration structure that doesn’t slap the responsible dog owners around.
If the is goal to bring all citizens into the family of responsible pet owners and you want Fulton to be a pet friendly town without dogs running loose and causing other problems, then the proposed ordinance needed to reflect this goal top to bottom."
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