Item 8-h - Unified Animal Control Ordinance Amendments

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17 Attachment 3a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: AMENDMENTS TO ORANGE COUNTY'S UNIFIED ANIMAL CONTROL ORDINANCE October 15,2018 Effective October 15, 2018,the Unified Animal Control Ordinance for Orange County, North Carolina, was amended by the Board of County Commissioners in a number of different ways. Based on experiences with the ordinance since its adoption in 2016,these amendments were made based upon the recommendations of Animal Services staff and the Animal Services Advisory Board.They worked closely with the county's staff attorney to develop and present these amendments. Below is an overview of substantive amendments in the form of questions and answers: 1. Has animal control authority changed? It has not changed as much as it has been clarified. Specifically, a new paragraph 4-38(c) has been added to the section titled "Animal control program" in order to clarify under what conditions Animal Control Officers may enter onto private property.This language states in writing what Animal Control Officers currently do in practice, by granting them the authority under the Ordinance to enter onto and inspect private property to investigate, impound, and/or issue citations for violations of the Ordinance, such as upon the owner's consent, pursuant to an administrative search warrant, or as otherwise authorized for law(for example, pursuant to a criminal search warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement, such as exigent circumstances). 2. What changes have been made in the regulation of dangerous animals? A number of amendments were made in section 4-42 of the ordinance.They are identified below: • References to the defined term "restraint" have been removed and substituted with variations of"control" or"confined in accordance with the requirements of this section." The definition of"Restraint" in section 4-37(bb) is applicable to animals in the County generally,while animals that have been declared "dangerous" are subject to the higher levels of restraint as detailed in section 4-42(d). Changing the word "restraint" in section 4- 42 is intended to alleviate conflation of"restraint" generally and the stronger control required for animals declared dangerous, and clarify the requirements for how dangerous animals must be controlled and confined under the Ordinance. • The Animal Services Advisory Board and Animal Services Hearing Panel Pool members determined the language of Section 4-42(b)(3)to be confusing when applied in appeal hearings for dangerous animal declarations.The proposed language clarifies that sentence by moving "defending a person"to another part of the Ordinance (see 4-42(e)) and by limiting the provision to apply to animals attacked while "on the land of the attacking animal's owner or keeper without permission" as opposed to "on the land of another