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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: October 3, 2006 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~-e.,. _ <br />SUBJECT: Creation of a Tethering Committee <br />DEPARTMENT: Animal Services PUB<_IC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Draft Charge To and Composition of <br />Orange County Tethering Committee <br />'Tethering Meeting Summary Notes <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Bob Marotto, Director, 968-2287 <br />Gwen Harvey, Assistant County <br />Manager, 245-2307 <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 regard <br />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 (ASAB). The same issue has been raised elsewhere in North Carolina and <br />around the United States, and in some places, there have been ordinance or statutory changes <br />that 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 athree-pronged charge from the ASAB. First, <br />they were to create a larger committee with across-section of community views; second, to <br />compile pertinent information; and finally, to determine how general public comment ought to be <br />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 />