Danville City Council passes pooper-scooper ordinance

Danville City Council approved a pooper-scooper ordinance Thursday night that makes not cleaning up animal waste a Class 4 misdemeanor subject to a fine of up to $250.

No one entered any objection to the plan during a public hearing held before council members voted on the new law, which passed unanimously.

The new law covers pets that are not cleaned up after on both public and private property.

City Manager Lyle Lacy said signs will be installed in city parks and along the Riverwalk Trail to let pet owners know the penalties for not obeying the law.

Private property owners will be able to file complaints with the Danville Police Department, take out a warrant and testify in court about people who allow their pets to leave unwanted waste on their lawns.

In the work session following the regular meeting, Paulette Dean, executive director of the Danville Area Humane Society, showed a presentation outlining the dangers and cruelty in keeping dogs chained outdoors. Dean is asking for a new law that would allow animals to be chained for a maximum of three hours total out of any 24-hour period.

Graphic photographs of dogs and cats left on chains to suffer heat stroke, starvation, neglect, collars that became embedded in their necks, attacks from other animals they could not escape — even chained animals that hung themselves when they tried to jump over a fence — were shown.

Dean said chained animals make up 90 percent of the neglect and cruelty cases the city’s animal control officers respond to, a statistic confirmed by Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot.

“I was shocked at what they told me,” Broadfoot said. “A lot of animal control officers’ time is spent with chained dogs.”

Broadfoot said he would support a chain law that he called beneficial for both the animals currently chained and the two animal control officers on his staff.

Dean said Humane Society is willing to put up $5,000 to help people purchase dog lots/kennels for their pets, and will also arrange to have the animals spayed or neutered for free if their owners agree to get them off the chains.

Councilman Gary Miller questioned whether three hours was too short a period of time, but other members said they felt the time limit was fair, matching limits in place in other communities in the state.

Dean said she would accept a fairly lengthy period of time before the law goes into effect so it can be adequately advertised, and to give people time to save money for proper enclosures for their pets. Council members proposed choosing July 1, 2010, as the date it would go into effect if the ordinance passes.

A public hearing will be held before City Council votes on the measure.