ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County will consider adopting a new animal ordinance - one with more legal teeth - later this month.
The county's animal welfare committee, which has been working on new regulations governing dogs and kennels, voted Monday night to recommend the ordinance to the county Board of Supervisors.
It also will send the board a draft of proposed new regulations for licensing kennels, to see if it reflects the direction the supervisors want to go. The draft calls for four classes of licenses for kennels of different sizes, with the most restrictions and largest costs on the biggest kennels.
Citizen complaints over the housing and condition of dogs at the Solid Rock Kennels in Draper earlier this year led to the committee's recommendations. The Draper kennel reopened this month after a self-imposed quarantine by owner Terry Weaver stemming from an outbreak of the parvo virus among some of its animals.
One change would be to start making kennel owners buy individual licenses for their dogs - $5 for males and females, $3 for those neutered or spayed - in addition to kennel licenses ranging from $10 to $50.
Dr. David Stanley, a veterinarian on the committee, predicted opposition to that kind of jump in fees. For a kennel owners with 20 dogs, "You're not raising it $10 or $20, you're raising it $100," he said. Frank Conner, a former sheriff now on the Board of Supervisors, agreed but said current fees are far too low.
"It may discourage them from having that many dogs, which is probably better for the neighbors, all the way around," said Dr. Randy Vaughn, a veterinarian who helped draw up the draft.
Doug Mayberry, county director of fleet maintenance and operations, reminded the committee that the regulations were changed in 1989 to require payment for licenses for the first 20 dogs in a kennel.
"You're supposed to be buying those individual tags plus the kennel [license], as of '89," Mayberry said. "We just haven't been enforcing it." So people with more than five dogs have found it cheaper to buy only the $20 kennel license and no tags.
The proposed new kennel fees would be $10 for five to nine dogs, if more than half have been spayed or neutered; $20 for that number if less than half are unsexed; $30 for 10 to 19 dogs; $40 for 20 to 50 with more than half unsexed; and $50 for 20 to 50 with less than half unsexed.
The last two categories would carry additional requirements including mandatory inspections by an animal control officer, the kennel being at least 100 feet from any store, restaurant, office, church, school, well, spring or water supply, and a public hearing for adjacent property owners to object before a license is approved.
A special permit from the Board of Supervisors would be required to keep more than 50 dogs.
The draft also proposes that people with more than 10 cats be required to purchase an annual $25 permit, and meet other requirements.
Sheriff Ralph Dobbins, whose department will have to enforce kennel regulations, said the draft is too complicated and suggested developing a checklist that an animal control officer could use. That will be done if the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors agrees to proceed with the kennel regulations as proposed.
The committee recommended fining animal owners up to $250 for nuisance acts by any dog, cat or domestic animal such as property damage, attacks on other animals or people, making excessive noise, and creating offensive odors or unsanitary conditions.
County Administrator Joe Morgan said the county gets many complaints of barking dogs. "So far we haven't responded to them," he said, because no nuisance provisions are in place to enforce.
The proposed ordinance defines a kennel as an enclosure or structure restraining more than five dogs. It would not apply to a home but, otherwise, would require the purchase of a kennel license in addition to individual dog licenses.
The county has advertised for a third animal control officer. "We ran an ad for that third position. We got 72 applications," Dobbins said. "Good ones, too."
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