Ever since the city council received fierce backlash from Middlesboro dog owners over the first ordinance, which would have banned pit bulls from the city, the local government has been looking for alternatives to solve the dog problems.
City dog owners met in a public meeting in May to come up with some ideas on laws they would like to see implemented in a new ordinance without being breed specific. The city is now making a new ordinance that will apply to all dogs, all breeds, all over the city.
When safety committee members Randy Ball, Everett “Mammaw” Gulley, Ronnie Carter, and Larry Adkins met last Thursday prior to the city council meeting, they reviewed a draft version of what local dog owners came up with. To their surprise, the local owners had done their homework.
"This (proposed ordinance) is more than I think we (city council) could ever have thought of," said councilman and committee member Ronnie Carter. "There isn't any way we'll be able to enforce all they've come up with, and we are not going to adopt everything, but they've come up with a lot of good items that needs to be in our ordinance."
The ideas local dog owners came up with total more than six pages of definitions, ideas, and suggestions on paper. The most important laws the committee members wanted to adopt deal with dogs in public.
One of the bylaws all the members agreed on is the banning of all dogs from public events, parks, ball games and festivals, with the exception of seeing-eye dogs and dog shows.
Dogs that are being walked out on the sidewalks would be required to be on a leash and children under 14 years of age would not be allowed to lead a dog in public areas without the supervision of an adult.
"We can't have these dogs out at these games and in the middle of these events," said Carter. " I think we are all in agreement that we want to get these dogs out of public events."
Committee members even discussed the idea of having every dog in the city registered with tags showing the animal had their vaccination for rabies.
"They need to have their rabies tag on their collar," said Gulley.
Clauses on containment and care of the dogs was another section the committee members liked, which states all dogs shall be contained to their owner's property in either a securely fenced yard, enclosure, or securely fastened tether.
The council will have a lot more work to do in the coming weeks, including setting up the fees for fines, ways they plan to enforce the new laws, and other issues that may arise.
"This isn't going away and no matter what we do, someone isn't going to be happy but our concern is the safety of our citizens," said Ball.
The draft laws are now going to the city attorney so he can draft up an ordinance.
Natasha Douglas is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. She can be reached via e-mail at ndouglas@middlesborodailynews.com.
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