Payson, AZ New town ordinance will redefine dangerous dogs

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New town ordinance will redefine dangerous dogs
Thursday, 12 June 2008

By Jim Keyworth, Gazette Publisher

The Town Council authorized chang¬es to the animal control ordinance at its regular Thursday meeting that will redefine dangerous dogs and require dogs in public places to be on leashes.

The changes will redefine a “vicious animal” as “one that inflicts substantial injury on a human being or animal.” The current ordinance requires an at¬tack on a human being for an animal to be declared vicious.
It will also add a “potentially danger¬ous animal” category “for any animal that has once actively pursued, at¬tacked, bitten or otherwise caused a less severe injury than a substantial injury” to a person or another animal. A substantial injury is one that requires medical treatment.

A third new category, “dangerous animal,” applies to any animal that has committed one of the above offenses twice within a 48-month period.

By adding the new categories, a dog does not have to be declared “vicious” to be dealt with by animal control authorities.

“The potentially dangerous animal would be the first step, Payson Animal Control Officer Don Tanner said. “If the owner is cited for that, we have certain provisions that must be fol¬lowed.

“The next step would be a dangerous animal. There’s even more steps that must be followed if declared that.

“And then the ultimate one would be vicious animal, and each one gets more and more strict. A dangerous or vicious animal must be microchipped, and that would be a positive identifica¬tion permanently attached to that dog.

Leash loophole fixed

The revised ordinance will also require a dog on public streets, public places and private property other than the owner’s to be on leash. The ordi¬nance currently only requires dogs to be under control “by oral command or otherwise.”

“What it was was a contradiction of the leash law. There is a leash law in 90.20, but there is a contradiction with that in 90.21, and that contradiction states the owner must only be in oral or verbal command of the dog,” Tan¬ner said. “We are going to have that changed to inadequate leash, rather than just oral command.”

The revised ordinance will allow the Payson Police Department to better control animals with a propensity to harm humans or other animals, accord¬ing to a council decision request filed by Police Chief Don Engler. It will be brought back to the council no later than the first meeting in August for final approval.

“It will go back to the attorneys for fine tuning,” Tanner said. “I’ve been working on this thing for three years now and it just keeps getting put off for one reason or another, so I’m ex¬cited to see it going forward.”

Councilor Mike Vogel asked that the revised ordinance also deal with control of backyard breeders. Tanner said backyard breeders are a big prob¬lem, but he hopes that proposed state legislation will eventually address the problem.

http://www.rimcountrygazette.com/index. ... 4&Itemid=1


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