City steps up enforcement of
animal laws
Police,
animal control officers conduct sweep in Portland,
western Louisville
By Joseph Gerth,The Courier-Journal
Louisville
KY Courier-Journal Thursday, December 8, 2005
Crystal
Sewell rushed out of her Chase Court home into the cold yesterday
morning to confront a Louisville Metro Police officer and animal
control
officer who had come to check on her pets.
"You
ain't gonna take my dog. You ain't gonna take my dog," she
said, racing
to the Chow-mix puppy, chained to the fence without water or shelter.
Sewell
told the officers that her dogs -- the puppy and a pregnant pit
bull
mix taken inside only minutes before -- generally are kept inside.
But she
was cited for several violations, including failure to license and
inhumane
treatment.
Capt.
Ann Camp of Metro Animal Services said the temperature at the time
--about 24 degrees, with a 17-degree wind chill -- was too cold
to leave a dog
without shelter.
The
citations were among several issued during a special sweep yesterday
in
Portland and western Louisville that aimed to crack down on people
who
violate the city's animal laws -- regulations under scrutiny in
recent weeks
after two deadly dog attacks.
The
thinking was that if pet owners were cited, or saw their neighbors
cited, they would work harder to be responsible, licensing their
pets and
ensuring humane conditions, said Jackie Gulbe, spokeswoman for Metro
Animal
Services.
The
officers also were looking for strays in an effort to avoid situations
such as the one that occurred on Nov. 18, when two unleashed dogs
attacked a
60-year-old man who was walking home from work in the Parkland neighborhood.
In response to recent attacks, Metro Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton
has
proposed a law that would require owners of pit bulls and Rottweilers
to
carry $500,000 in liability insurance; require such dogs be kept
in 7-foot
tall pens; and require the owners to register them with Animal Services.
Some
have argued that such breed-specific laws are unnecessary and that
the
problem of attacks could be resolved if the city enforced existing
laws.
Animal Services Director Gilles Meloche has said the agency's 13
enforcement
officers aren't enough to enforce existing laws -- let alone Hamilton's
toughened proposal.
But
Meloche's department got a hand yesterday, with the special sweep
suggested by officers in the metro police 1st and 2nd divisions.
Maj. Bob Johnson, 1st Division commander, said the idea arose as
officers were discussing "quality-of-life issues" in the
area.
He
said some children have been harassed by dogs as they walk to school,
and
police have received reports of animals that have escaped from yards
and of
dogs that are allowed to run.
"We
want the public to feel safe," Johnson said, adding that he
hopes to
conduct monthly sweeps in the 1st Division.
Gulbe
said it's impossible to tell what effect the sweeps will have. "It's
kind of like throwing a starfish back into the ocean. You don't
know if it
will help or not," she said.
Yesterday's
six-hour sweep resulted in six people being cited for a number
of violations, and six dogs, including four strays, being impounded.
Sewell got to keep her dogs. If convicted, however, her citations
could cost
more than $500 in fines, plus court costs and license fees.
And
1st Division Officer Paul Foster said he planned to send a late
watch
officer past the home to see if the dogs were chained outside again.
At another home on 26th Street, Camp and Animal Services Lt. Nita
Matheson
impounded a pit bull after finding it chained outside without water
or
shelter. Two other pit bulls in the yard had water and shelter.
Foster said the dogs' owner had told him recently that they are
not
licensed.
Camp
said that the owner would be cited and that the other dogs would
be
confiscated if animal control officers returned and found them still
chained
outside. Later in the day, the dogs' owner surrendered one of the
two
remaining dogs to Animal Services, Gulbe said.
Under
city law, a dog can't be chained for more than one hour per day
unless
the chain is affixed to a pulley or trolley that slides along a
cable, giving the dog more freedom to run.
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