Spanish Fork dog owners advocate new pet ordinance

[bigdoglover]

Daily Herald

NATALIE EVANS - Daily Herald

Spanish Fork is going to the dogs, or dog owners, for advice on its new pet ordinance.

After considering a kennel permit law, the City Council decided Tuesday night that the best people to write the law that would allow pet owners to have up to four dogs in their home would be those seeking to do so.

"If it's not a nuisance, no harm, no foul," Mayor Joe Thomas said. "Let them have the pets."

The dog owners couldn't be more pleased.

Kokopelli, Kachina, Jackson Brown and Dakota -- all Labradors -- moved with their owners Gary and Ginger Fenton to Spanish Fork from Arizona in November 2005. The couple said that they assigned their real estate agent the specific task of finding the whole Fenton family a place to live. After examining dog law, the Fentons settled in Spanish Fork, believing that they complied.

However, within weeks of moving in, Ginger Fenton said she discovered the city's two dog limit. She said she was told she'd be OK until someone called in to report the violation. A neighbor eventually did, and Ginger Fenton said she was told she was in violation.

She was issued a citation and told to appear in court June 12.

City Attorney Junior Baker and animal control officer Mark Byers attempted to address the problem Tuesday by introducing a residential kennel permit. The permit would cost applicants $25 per year and would allow residents with a half acre or more to own four dogs, as long as they stayed away from the perimeter of the property, meaning dogs couldn't go up to a fence that borders a sidewalk.

Spanish Fork resident Rick Evans objected to the proposed ordinance because of the complicated wording.

"Right now, my dogs can literally run fence to fence, front to back. ... I guess I have to put up a fence within a fence," he said.

The proposed permit law also would not help the Fentons, who live on less than a half acre. And their dogs run free in their fenced yard, which borders their property.

Thomas's request for advice on the ordinance was more than the Fentons could have asked for. They were simply asking for a waiver from the two dog law.

Still, Baker said that dog complaints are the biggest complaint Spanish Fork gets. Last Friday, Byers said he issued 19 multiple-dog citations because of complaints.

Thomas said that most complaints he receives are about single dog issues, such as barking or odor. Byers agreed.

The Fentons brought with them signed letters from their neighbors on all sides, saying that the dogs were not a problem.

Byers said too many dogs in a home has been a problem in Spanish Fork before. He dealt with a home that had 41 Pomeranians.

Two weeks after the owners were cited and the dogs impounded, the owners had 19 dogs. He wanted the wording to be strict enough so something like that doesn't happen again.

Thomas granted the Fentons more time on the their citation while the city considers a new law.