Minutes 09-20-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- Action Item 2b: Saturday Scheduling of an Animal Control Officer (ACO): As an alternative to Action Item 2a, the BOCC could direct staff to schedule an Animal Control Officer on Saturday at a location in the northern part of the County. - Action Item 3 WRC Involvement: The WRC help publicize as well as enforce written permission laws as they apply in Orange County. Commissioner McKee said that even though there were listed that there were eight stray dogs of the Hamlin family, there were only two complaints regarding hunting deer with dogs. PUBLIC COMMENT: Lamar Chapman said that he has more questions than comments. He said that with everything that is going on in Orange County with 911 communications, etc., he wonders if the system should be overloaded with more calls about dog hunters. He said that he wants to know how many of the 11 calls were ticketed. He said that he would like the numbers of the wildlife officers and people involved so that when they come in the woods and harass him, he can call 911 and have the same rights as everyone else. He said that he has rights and they are being infringed upon. He said that there are more important things then spending money on an issue like this. He asked how the County is going to distinguish between pet dogs and hunting dogs. He said that he has his dogs in Person County so that he does not have to deal with Orange County. He said that animal control in other places allows owners to pick up their dogs from animal control at a reduced fee or none at all. Orange County requires the full fee of $140 per animal. He said that he leases land that is on two sides of the road and his dog has been picked up for crossing the road between these two properties. He does not think this is fair. He said that some of the information in staff reports was not correct. He asked how many dog hunters were involved in the discussions. He is willing to be a part of this. David Honeycutt is a resident of Cedar Grove and he asked the County Commissioners to ban hunting deer with dogs in northern Orange County. He said that he has had to call 911 because of hunters and dogs on his property. He said that it seems to be a public health and safety issue. He said that he had hunters in his horse pasture and dogs on his property. He asked the County Commissioners to support the recommendations of the outreach program. Jennifer Honeycutt said that she is one of the 911 calls. She verified that there have been hunters in the horse pasture in 2010. When they confronted the hunters, the hunters said that they were from Smithfield and that they did not know about the dogs. She said that they nicely asked the hunters to leave, but the hunters insisted on staying to retrieve the dogs. They then called 911, but the hunters left and no one was ticketed. She asked the County Commissioners to ban deer hunting with dogs in Orange County. She said that during hunting season, her grandchildren cannot go out into the yard because of the guns going off and she has to move her horses to different areas. Steve Hamlin said that he is opposing the ban on hunting with deer. He spoke about the hard economic times in the country right now. He said that this proposal is outrageous because the County is proposing to spend $6,600 on public outreach. Dave Hughes is opposed to the ban on hunting with dogs. Earl Brown said that the key phrase tonight is wasteful spending. Bonnie Hauser read a prepared statement. "Thank you for continuing to work on a ban of dog deer hunting in Orange County. As you know, your board voted unanimously twice to ban dog deer hunting in Northern Orange County. Unfortunately, our legislators have been unable to get laws passed. We appreciate