Agenda - 10-01-2013 - 7a - Laserfiche WebLink

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7 Staff has tried to work around the gaps in the Ordinance in close collaboration with staff attorneys from the County and municipalities to respond to animal control issues and to protect public safety and the welfare of the animals. In addition to Staff review of the Ordinance changes, the Animal Services Advisory Board ( "ASAB ") also reviewed and suggested changes to the draft Unified Ordinance. The ASAB discussed the proposed changes to the Ordinance on three occasions: • At the initial meeting (February 20, 2013), the Animal Services staff attorney discussed the effort to create a unified ordinance, its rationale and its scope. • In a subsequent meeting (March 20 2013), the Animal Services Director and staff attorney went through a draft version of the proposed ordinance distributed in advance of the meeting for review by board members. This was a page -by -page, review in which feedback was provided for additional consideration. • At the May 15, 2013 ASAB meeting, the focus was on the status of vicious animals in the proposed unified ordinance. The Animal Services Director presented a summary to identify the "gaps" that were being in- filled by the proposed ordinance as well as the logic of state and local laws and their articulation and limitations. At the meeting the ASAB made some suggestions for further consideration (which staff has incorporated) and unanimously recommended that staff bring its effort to create the unified ordinance to as soon as possible. This detailed examination of the Vicious Animal section of the Ordinance was done to assure that issues voiced by concerned residents about the laws surrounding vicious animals at the March 20, 2013 meeting were fully discussed. It also had the added benefit of completely clarifying how the unified ordinance would strengthen the County ordinance given that the BOCC Chair and Vice -Chair had previously requested such consideration from staff and the ASAB in response to resident concerns about the death of a dog as a result of an attack by a declared dangerous dog in the resident's neighborhood. The only area in which amendments that would be considered a change are being proposed is in the area of animal recovery. These changes are being proposed on the basis of the recommendations made by the ASAB and Animal Services staff to the BOCC at the Board's February 12, 2013 Work Session. The changes are part and parcel of the County's five year plan for managing pet overpopulation in order to both reduce the euthanasia of potentially adoptable animals and to contain and control the medium and long -terms costs of providing animal services. There are three specific changes that are incorporated into the unified ordinance on the basis of this effort. These changes are to create: 1. A requirement for micro chipping stray cats and dogs upon their first recovery; 2. A tiered and differential fee schedule for the recovery of cats and dogs depending upon the number of times they have been recovered and whether they are reproductive or sterilized; 3. A refundable spay /neuter deposit for cats and dogs recovered three or more times. Bob Marotto said subsequent to County adoption of the ordinance, as previously indicated, staff from the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro will present the unified ordinance for consideration by their respective governing boards. There has already been legal review of the Ordinance in each jurisdiction and there is ongoing consideration of the best way for the towns to enact the Unified Ordinance. Significantly, the towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill are expected to retain some portion of their ordinances that have been designed to address unique circumstances specific to that jurisdiction or where there is no corresponding component in the Unified Ordinance in the other jurisdictions: (i.e. tethering, permitting chicken, and keeping livestock). Where a Municipality may have a more restrictive Ordinance in an urban area than the County does for rural areas, the Ordinance provides for the greater restriction in the municipalities than in the County. Communication from the Hillsborough Town Manager indicates that Hillsborough will essentially adopt the County's new unified ordinance. The Town has done and will continue to do so on the