Tougher dog ordinance weighed in Oldham

[bigdoglover]

The Courier-Journal, Louisville

By Andrea Uhde

It took four people and a broom to fight off a pair of pit bulls that were attacking a dog in Crestwood earlier this year.

The victim, a beagle named Buddy, had 17 cuts and needed emergency surgery.

Oldham County Animal Control had to release the pit bulls after a 10-day quarantine because it didn't have the legal authority to hold them, but county officials are considering rules that would allow them to hold dangerous dogs longer.

Fiscal Court will consider an ordinance today that would let the Animal Control Department detain dogs that have attacked other dogs or people until a district judge decides whether the dog is vicious and should be destroyed.

Right now, the department must release a dog that attacks another dog or person after a 10-day quarantine. The dog is back in the community until a court hearing, which can take up to six weeks, Animal Control Director Barbara Rosenman said.

The proposed rules include the county's first specific definition for vicious dogs: animals that bite a person or other animal, causing severe injury, or dogs owned or harbored primarily or in part for the purpose of fighting with other animals.

The county health department last year had 52 reports of dogs biting people.

Under the ordinance, if a dog is considered vicious, the department could take the owner to court. "This new ordinance is going to give greater protection to people's pets," Rosenman said.

However, each case will be examined separately to decide whether a bite was really a vicious act, she said. In some instances, a dog could playfully nip someone without real injury, she said.

Under the ordinance, a person convicted of having a vicious dog could be fined up to $500 and be sentenced to jail for up to 90 days. Also, a judge could order that the dog be surrendered to the Animal Control Department to be put down.

Lydia Laytham, president of the Humane Society of Oldham County, said the group supports the ordinance but would like to see it specify who determines whether the dog is vicious.

She also said the society would like to see a panel formed to work with the animal department or Fiscal Court to enforce the ordinance.

The ordinance was spurred by the incident involving Buddy, which happened in January, Rosenman said.

Buddy is a therapeutic dog at Windsong in Crestwood, an intermediate-care facility for adults with mental retardation.

"This could have been tragic if those dogs had bit one of those people," Windsong administrator Lisa Godbey-Lundy said.

Buddy is especially close to Windsong resident Joe Stallings, and Stallings was sad to know that Buddy had been injured.

Buddy "is a big part of this man's life," Godbey-Lundy said.

A committee that included Rosenman and three Fiscal Court magistrates modeled the ordinance after one in Kenton County.

"This is very lenient, but it's better than what I had," Rosenman said. "We didn't want anything that was going to be overly harsh. We also strongly felt like we had several situations in the county where animal control's hands were tied."