After more than a year on the books, Pottsville officials said the city's dangerous dog ordinance has been effective.
"It seems to be working fine," City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said Friday. "I think when we had the problem in the past and enacted the ordinance, we had a lot of good publicity and people knew the repercussions. For the most part, it has been handled pretty well, in part because of the pretty serious repercussions."
Enacted last July, Ordinance 803 requires "dangerous" pets to be registered with the city health department. Registration carries a $250 fee, plus a $50 annual renewal fee.
According to the ordinance, a "dangerous" or "vicious" dog is:
- Any dog that bites, inflicts injury, assaults or otherwise attacks a human being or domestic animal without provocation.
- Any dog that, without provocation, approaches in a threatening or terrorizing manner, any person or domestic animal on the streets, sidewalks or any public places.
- Any dog that is trained to attack or cause injury or to otherwise endanger the safety of human beings or domestic animals, or any dog that has a history of attacking or propensity to attack.
- Police dogs, guard dogs acting under the supervision of a police officer or certified trained dog handler or guide dogs are exceptions.
First violation results in a $600 fine while the third violation results in "mandatory euthanasia of the dangerous dog at the expense of the dog owner," according to the ordinance.
"I feel we have had less complaints coming in now about dangerous animals because of the ordinance," Palamar said. "It carries a pretty stiff penalty and is very preventative in nature, which is what you want with any law."
Along with city police, city Health Officer Frank Spleen enforces the ordinance. Spleen was not available for comment.
Palamar said the ordinance was enacted to make sure city residents are more responsible of their pets.
"A vast majority of what (Spleen) does is work with people to make sure they are good pet owners," Palamar said. "Unfortunately, sometimes a community has to remind people of their responsibilities - their homes, their pets, their surroundings. In a really tight community like Pottsville, you have to look at how your behavior is impacting your surrounding neighbors."
Palamar said the ordinance has made life easier for the police who sometimes have to act like referees between neighbors.
The ordinance was passed last year as a response to several dog attacks in the city. Within two weeks before the ordinance was passed:
- On June 22, 2011, three children were attacked and injured by a pit bull on Fleet Street. The dog was shot and killed by a police officer.
- On June 23, an 8-year-old boy was bitten on the right arm at the intersection of North Jackson and East Market streets.
- On July 3, Jack Jones, 80, of Pottsville, was attacked and bitten on West Norwegian Street.
Palamar said a lot of residents attended the meeting when the ordinance was passed. He said some people came to show their support for the ordinance, but the majority wanted to make sure it was not breed specific.
"It was pretty wild last year," Palamar said. "People feared it was a breed specific ordinance - ours was not. That was a good thing. There are a lot of problems with enforcing breed specific ordinances."
He said there has been no backlash over the ordinance since it was enacted.
With a dog of his own, Palamar said he understands why people are so concerned about dog ordinances.
"People remain very passionate about their animals," Palamar said. "They feel they are a part of their family and don't want them to be treated any different."
In other news regarding dogs, Tamaqua police are still investigating the discovery of nine dead pit bulls found in a Dumpster behind a Center Street business in the borough early Wednesday morning. According to prior reports, police Chief Dave Mattson said eight of the dogs appeared to have died within 24 hours while the ninth - found inside a dog food bag - had been dead for a while. The animals were sent to the Mountain Shadow Veterinary Hospital in Schuylkill Haven to be examined.
There were no updates in the situation as of Saturday evening.
Anyone with information pertaining to this incident or have noticed missing dogs are asked to call Tamaqua police at 570-668-5000 or Schuylkill County Communications at 570-668-6100.