Orange County NC Website
MIR <br />Tethering Committee Report July 30t`, 2007 <br />PURPOSE: To request that the BOCC create a Tethering Committee for the purpose of <br />assessing whether and if so how the County's animal ordinances should be amended in <br />regard to the tethering of dogs. <br />BACKGROUND: The issue of whether or not there should be more restrictive tethering <br />requirements in Orange County's animal ordinances has come before the Animal Services <br />Advisory Board. The same issue has been raised elsewhere in North Carolina and around the <br />United States, and in some places, there have been ordinance or statutory changes that <br />restrict or prohibit the use of tethers and chains to confine dogs. <br />The issue of tethering was the subject of discussion at the August meeting of the Animal <br />Services Advisory Board. Proponents of more restrictive tethering requirements addressed <br />concerns with public safety and community livability as well as concerns with the humane care <br />of animals. Another member of the community favorably compared tethering with other forms <br />of confinement. <br />On the basis of public comments on tethering, and discussion among its members regarding <br />ordinances of this kind in the context of Orange County, the ASAB decided that a Tethering <br />Committee ought to be created. Toward that end, the ASAB selected two representatives to <br />meet and develop an approach in response to a three - pronged charge from the ASAB. First, <br />they were to create a larger committee with a cross - section of community views; second, to <br />compile pertinent information; and finally, to determine how general public comment ought to <br />be gathered about any possible ordinance amendments regarding tethering. <br />In early September, there was a meeting of the two ASAB representatives to the Tethering <br />Committee. A primary outcome of that meeting was to identify positions for five additional <br />members of that Committee defined as follows: (1) law enforcement; (2) expertise in the area <br />of animal behavior; (3) expertise in the area of animal health and wellness; (4) an advocate of <br />more limited tethering; and (5) an advocate for tethering as a means of confinement. <br />Subsequent to the meeting, staff discovered that only the BOCC could create or authorize the <br />creation of such a committee. Thus the creation of the Committee was referred back to the <br />ASAB at its September meeting and, at that meeting, a motion was unanimously adopted <br />asking the BOCC to either create a Tethering Committee, or to authorize the ASAB to itself <br />create such a committee as described herein. Accordingly, the BOCC will also need to decide <br />whether the additional five pre - defined positions on the Tethering Committee would be filled <br />the ASAB itself or by the BOCC through its usual application process for volunteers. <br />The Animal Services Department, under the direction of Bob Marotto, will serve as Secretary <br />to the Tethering Committee under either scenario and the recommendations from the <br />Tethering Committee will be reviewed and commented on by the ASAB as a whole before <br />being presented to the BOCC for any possible action. <br />18 <br />