Mercer County Commission still looking at proposed leash law

Oct. 11—PRINCETON — Questions about whether the county animal shelter would get overcrowded and who would handle violations delayed a first reading Tuesday for a proposed Mercer County leash law.

A first reading for the leash law was on the Mercer County Commission's agenda, but this was tabled when County Commissioner Greg Puckett said questions still had to be addressed. The leash law scheduled for a first reading was amended from one that was read in September.

The proposed leash law's amended draft was more specific about hunting dogs and farm dogs. Owners of both types spoke out during a Sept. 26 commission meeting about how the proposed leash law would impact their dogs, arguing that keeping them on leashes was impractical.

One citizen, Aaron Taylor of the Princeton Coon Hunters Association, told the commissioners then that the ordinance needs an amendment exempting hunting dogs with GPS trackers or nameplates on their collars, adding that other people rely on dogs to protect their livestock.

Another resident, Susan Arnold of the Princeton area, said during the September meeting that a neighborhood canine that's allowed to roam harasses her dog. She showed the commissioners a petition at Tuesday's meeting. She said many of her neighbors support the proposed leash law. The petition had 40 signatures.

"I'm not even a quarter of the way through my community," Arnold said.

After the first reading was tabled, Puckett said potential problems still had to be addressed and that the county's attorney needed more time to look at the draft ordinance.

"One of the major problems we had was we really looked at a time issue," Puckett said after the meeting. "Since the last meeting it's been a couple of weeks, Prosecuting Attorney Brian Cochran has been extraordinarily busy with a lot of different cases. We've worked with his office, with him specifically, to make sure we got the best ordinance lined out around the issue of farm and hunting dogs."

Copies of the proposed leash law were available during the meeting and on the county commission's website. In the draft, a farm dog is defined as "a dog acting in protection of animals and/or livestock under its care."

A hunting dog is defined as " a dog engaged in lawful hunting with an active tracking device attached to it that the owner is tracking and following during the lawful hunt."

The draft also defines when a dog is considered to be at large. This occurs when "a dog, other than a farm dog or hunting dog, shall be deemed to be at large whenever it is not under the immediate physical control of a responsible person capable to physically restraining the dog and is not on the owner's property or on property where it has the property owner's express permission to be."

Puckett said he wanted to wait on proceeding until three issues are clarified. First, there is a question about whether county magistrates would handle any cases involving the leash law. The West Virginia State Code indicates this would be the case.

"And so I want to make sure that is indeed true," he stated.

It is also important to make sure the county has the fiscal means to enforce a leash law and to see whether there needs to be another animal control officer in addition to the ones working already, Puckett said.

The Mercer County Animal Shelter has had to care for influxes of homeless dogs as well as cats. There is a question about whether the leash law could add to the animals arriving there. The shelter recently had to declare Code Red situations, meaning euthanasia might have to be considered due to overcrowding.

"And then the last thing, make sure we don't complicate an overcrowding issue at the shelter," Puckett said. "We know that we've been at Code Red twice in the last two months. If we get aggressive going after a lot of these dogs during the time it would transition into a new ordinance, that could potentially transition more dogs into the shelter. We've heard these concerns. We want to make sure to address them as much as we could, but this allows us a chance to have a little more time, do some more investigation and see how it's going to work out."

The draft leash law's new language will let the county adhere to the code while assuring the public that it's not specifically targeting farm dogs and hunting dogs, Puckett said. The leash law would involve hunting dogs or farm dogs only if they cause problems.

"Basically, in many ways it's going to be on a case-by-case basis because you're going to be looking at those saying, you're still going to be allowed to hunt with your dogs off of a leash obviously; because you're either going to be on private land or open public land where that's allowable or you're going to have a farm dog that's going to be out doing its farm business, obviously taking care of cattle and such," Puckett said. "By doing it this way, we still would adhere to the fact that if there happens to be a problem, it gives us a tool in the toolbox for an animal control officer to hold that person accountable for the nefarious acts of the dog."

Puckett said the proposed leash would continue to be on county commission agendas. People can comment about it during future meetings as well as comment about it on the county's Facebook page.

"I think in time as we discuss this and we work through the system, I think we have a chance of getting a stronger ordinance," he said. "I appreciate the commission understanding that this is a work in progress, nothing happens quickly. I feel very strongly that we need to do everything we can to protect the people in the county. Because right now, there's not a whole lot that we could do."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com