Dangerous Dog Ordinance Advances

Over the last eight months, the Joplin Board of Health has met several times to consider the Council's request for recommendations address dangerous dogs in the city of Joplin.  Several factors were identified by the Board as contributing to the incidence of bite wound injuries from dogs.  Many scientific studies were reviewed and many non-scientific issues were also discussed, including breed specific legislation (BSL).  The findings of the Board indicate the there is no evidence to support the theory that BSL actually reduces the incidence of serious dog bites.

Factors that do affect the incidence of dog bites were considered in depth and the Board ultimately made the following recommendations to Council:

• Look at possibility of additional spay/neuter ordinance changes to include making it mandatory for all dogs in city to be spay/neutered or look at additional incentives to encourage spay/neuter of dogs.

•  Look at ordinance change that does not allow the chaining of dogs in city as only method of restraint.  When used as the primary method of restraint, this method is prone to dogs becoming tangled and injured. This could help to prevent dogs from becoming loose. Additionally, it could reduce the situation where a child or pet might wander into an unsupervised and chained dog area resulting in an attack.

• Investigate the ability of city to institute a responsible pet ownership education program (a part of this would be bite prevention methods).

• Look at ordinance changes that limit dog ownership if owner has a previous history of animal control code violations (which indicates irresponsible pet owner).

• Investigate ability of city to initiate an animal control database capable of tracking animal code violations as well as animal bite history.

• Investigate code change mandating fines for owners of dogs that bite individuals while running at large.
  
  After presentation of the information to the Coucil, the Board was directed to come back with a Council Bill recommendation to address the above issues and include a criminal provision that would allow police officers to also charge and arrest persons involved in dog code violations that endagered public health.  Currently, only animal control officers (ACO's) can issue citations and they cannot arrest violators.
  
  Council also indicated support for spay/neuter requirements as not just a way to decrease the number of un-neutered dogs, which are involved in the majority of severe dog bites, but also as a way to reduce the workload of the animal control officers so that eventually they would have more time to directly address dangerous dog issues.
  
  Main Street Pet Care continues to support and explore innovative ways to provide low cost/high quality spay/neuter services.  Our Low Cost Monthly Clinic is getting larger and larger numbers each month as its popularity increases.