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10/18/2006: ""Dog Ordinance" Nearly Ready For Pubic Hearing"

(Council work session on problem of dogs running at large)

It has been a long time coming, and if Bob Myhr had his way, it would have happened months ago, but in any case an update of the "Dog Ordinance" is now showing up on the Council agenda, and a final draft may be ready for Council review next week. Once the Council approves the draft now being put together by the Prosecutor's office, a public hearing will be held to take input from the public at large.

Up to this point the discussions have been informal work sessions between the Council, staff members, and interested members of the public -most notably farmers and other members of the agricultural community, who have been pushing the Council to act in the face of ongoing attacks on live stock by dogs at large.

From these discussions a draft revision to the existing ordinance has been put together (Previous Story and key points of draft) , and on Tuesday the Council invited members of the animal shelters from Orcas and San Juan to join a discussion at another work session.

The two animal shelters (Lopez does not have a shelter) have a contract with the County to receive and house domestic animals, and they informed the Council that they would not require as much money to house, feed and -hopefully- return animals to their owners, as had been earmarked in the draft. The Council decided the ordinance would not address exact amounts, and would simply allow the shelters to set the impoundment fee, but Ranker asked that a limit be placed on how much they could charge. The Council set $20 as the upper limit.

One of the more emotional issue is what to do about dangerous dogs, including those that attack livestock. It had been suggested by one farmer that any dog attacking livestock should be killed, but Councilman Ranker -a vocal supporter of the ordinance- had concerns that this was a bit harsh, or at least had the potential of some unwanted consequences, presenting an example of some child's little pet dog running briefly running around in a field that contained livestock, and perhaps in the process chases a sheep -are we going to have the dog put down, he asked? The possibility of Ranker's hypothetical seemed to rein in any movement toward automatic elimination with extreme prejudice of any dogs "attacking" livestock.

At one time there were signs posted on the major roads informing that dogs attacking livestock could be shot, and it was decided the signs needed to be replaced, as they were important in educating the public of the possible consequence of not keeping their dogs under their control.

Once the draft ordinance is approved for a public hearing, we will publish it for review.