Responding in part to an attack last year by two pit bull terriers on a neighbor’s German shepherd, the Aurora City Council on Tuesday approved steps to strengthen regulations on animals declared “vicious.”
An animal can be declared vicious when it bites or attacks a person or animal without provocation. If two such attacks occur within two years, the vicious designation is automatic.
When an animal makes an attack, the Animal Control Division can impound the animal until arrangements are made with the owner to comply with vicious animal regulations. Currently, 40 dogs in the city are deemed vicious, Animal Control Director Randy Johnson said.
Once an animal is declared vicious by the Animal Control Division director, it must be kept in a four-sided enclosure that bars escape when it is outside. When beyond the owner’s property, it must be muzzled and leashed.
Owners must post warning signs on all four sides of their property and on the animal’s enclosure. And the vicious animal must have a microchip containing identification information injected beneath its skin.
If the owner of a vicious animal does not confine a pet and it attacks or bites an animal or person, the Animal Control Division can take the animal from that owner.
“Once a pet is deemed vicious and you own that animal, you had better keep a lot better track of that animal than you have,” Johnson said.
City officials and aldermen moved to tighten the vicious animal provisions of its animal control ordinance after receiving complaints from David Trent. One of his two shepherds was attacked Nov. 15 in his yard on the 500 block of Clearwater Drive by his neighbor’s pit bulls.
After those dogs were declared vicious, Trent said they were kept tied up in an unfenced area and left outside for days, and Trent pointed out the previous ordinance did not explicitly require a fenced area.
He said he also was concerned because a vicious animal designation lapsed after 24 months if there were no repeat offenses. Under the amendments, the animal control director has discretion after two years to declare that the animal is no longer vicious.
And Trent noted complaints about the pit bulls either running loose or being tied in the back yard without food and water for days had been made as early as July 1998. Under the amendments, the animal control director has wider latitude to impound animals if they are allowed to run loose or are mistreated.
“You’ve done a lot for me in the last four months, and my dogs are fine,” Trent told the council. “The things you’ve thought of and want to do should help.”
But he added: “You should try to prevent these incidents, not punish. Once you’re in this punishment phase the damage is already done.”
Ald. Tess Wackerlin said she hoped the new ordinance and publicity about it would serve as a deterrent to allowing vicious animals to do harm.
The amendments approved by the council also maintained the limit of four animals per home, but lowered the per-species limit from three to two, with homes that already had three of a species allowed to keep them. They also required that licenses be on the collars of all cats and dogs.
In addition, the required signs for invisible fences prohibited nuisance feeding of animals, required reporting of animal attacks and provided for an administrative hearing process for animal control fines, which range from $50 to $500.
And all pet shops, kennels, animal shelters, veterinary hospitals, pounds and zoos must have state licenses, under the amendments.
