Scott City officials alter animal control ordinance

The Scott City City Council doesn't care who let the dogs out. If someone feels threatened by the dogs, their owners are going to get a summons.

Monday night, the council changed its ordinance pertaining to vicious animals, substituting the word "aggrieved" for the previous word "injured."

"This means it doesn't have to hurt them for people to sign a complaint," said Mayor Tim Porch. He said anyone who feels threatened by an animal can sign a complaint.

The amendment to the ordinance came after recent complaints Chapman Circle neighbors have made about a fenced-in pit bull that barks and allegedly acts threateningly. Tiffany Burford, who owns a Rottweiler and the pit bull that has been the object of the complaints, came before the council Monday night to present letters from people who don't feel threatened by the dogs and to outline the steps she has taken to prevent her animals from getting loose and to quell their barking.

"They've never hurt anybody," said Burford, who works for a veterinarian.

Porch said police and some members of the council have observed the animals. "Everybody's come to the same conclusion: They're not absolutely vicious," he said. The city's prosecutor has concluded that the dogs have not violated the city's ordinances.

Barricade urged

Porch advised Burford to build some kind of barricade to keep the dogs from seeing neighbors.

In another complaint about dogs, Delores Mantos told the council she has been unable to get the city to respond to her calls about dogs running at large in her neighborhood at Chestnut and Fifth streets. Porch told her the city lacks the manpower to have a full-time dogcatcher, but that the police are responding to complaints of vicious dogs.

In the latest incident, Mantos said she was concerned that a dog was going to attack her. "That will be taken care of tomorrow morning," Porch assured her. The dog's owner could be issued a summons under the city's newly amended vicious animal ordinance.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182