Statesboro’s city government, which relies on Bulloch County Animal Services for animal control in the city limits, has been working with the county to update the city’s Animal Control Ordinance so that it fits better with the county’s.

Under the long-term Service Delivery Strategy agreement that Bulloch County maintains with the cities of Brooklet, Portal, Register and Statesboro, the county takes primary responsibility for animal control services. Specific to animal control, Statesboro and the county have been operating under an intergovernmental agreement that dates from 2007, and Statesboro’s ordinance was even 20 years older, City Attorney Cain Smith told the mayor and council.

“Ours hadn’t been amended since 1987, and a lot has changed in how we think of animals since then,” Smith said Dec. 5. “This will just update it, and it will make it much easier for the county’s animal control officers to enforce our ordinance as well as the county’s ordinance and so that all those violations would be heard in the Magistrate Court of Bulloch County.”

He referred to county’s animal control laws and policies as a “much more contemporary ordinance.” The proposed amended city ordinance would incorporate provisions of state law and also reflect the county’s responsibility for enforcing it.

Where the old city ordinance has, as it first subsection, a local law against tampering with a “city pound” that no longer exists, the revised ordinance in its Section 10-1 instead incorporates an entire article of state law, Official Code of Georgia, Annotated Title 4, Chapter 8, Article 2, “related to dangerous dog control.”

City-specific parts

But the update, pending final council approval, would also retain several city-specific parts of Statesboro’s old ordinance, such as Section 10-2: “It shall be unlawful for any person to keep hogs within the corporate limits of the city.”

And under 10-4, it will still be illegal to have “livestock and fowl running at large” in town.

Incidentally, it isn’t illegal to ride a horse in the city, but according to Section 10-5, “Any person who shall drive or ride a horse at a fast and reckless pace on the streets of the city shall be guilty of disorderly conduct.”

That part remains in the proposed new version, as does Section 10-6, designating all of Statesboro as a bird sanctuary.

The ordinance would still prohibit anyone from keeping “more than three dogs within the city limits within 300 yards of the residence of the owner or any other citizen of the city,” and prohibit dogs from running loose, requiring that they be kept in a safe enclosure.

Changes police role

However, the revision eliminates references to a city “dogcatcher” and assistants supervised by the chief of police.

Instead, Statesboro’s amended ordinance will provide that, pursuant to Georgia law, “Bulloch County shall designate a dog control officer to enforce the laws of the state and this article as they relate to dangerous dogs and other animals.”

But it will preserve first-response duties for city Police Department officers and county Sheriff’s Office deputies, as well as animal control officers, to “respond to reports from anyone of a dog biting a human,” for example. Police and sheriff’s officers are empowered to take into custody “for observation purposes” any dog they believe poses a threat to human health and safety.

Smith had informed City Council members during a Nov. 21 staff meeting about discussions city and county staff had toward amending the ordinance. At council members’ direction, he then presented the proposed amendment for a first reading during the Dec. 5 regular meeting.

No citizens spoke for or against the changes during the first-reading public hearing, and the council unanimously voted the amendment forward to a second reading.

No hearing is required on a second reading, which could be held during the council’s 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19 meeting, and the council may then vote on a motion for final approval.