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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 0043 ORDINANCE NO. 43 AN ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR A LICENSE FOR DOGS; FIXING THE FEES FOR SUCH LICENSE AND THE TERM FOR WHICH IT SHALL BE ISSUED; REQUIRING V ACCINA TION BEFORE ISSUANCE OF LICENSE; PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF SUCH LICENSE AND TAGS; REQUIRING SUCH TAG TO BE ATTACHED TO A DOG; PROVIDING FOR RECORDS TO BE KEPT; THE APPOINTMENT, TERM AND COMPENSATION OF A POUND MASTER; PROHIBITING DOGS FROM RUNNING A T LARGE; IMPOUNDING DOGS RUNNING AT LARGE AND PROVIDING FOR THEIR REDEMPTION; PRESCRIBING FEES FOR REDEMPTION; PROVIDING FOR DISPOSITION OF UNREDEEMED DOGS, AND FOR MONTHLY REPORTS BY POUNDS MASTER; REQUIRING QUARANTINE OF DOGS WHICH HAVE BITTEN A PERSON; PROVIDING FOR THE DISPOSAL OF INFECTED DOGS; REQUIRING CONFINJi:MENT AND EXAMINA- TION OF DOGS SUSPEC TED OF HAVING RABIES; REQUIRING THE OWNER AND ALSO ALL PRACTICING VETENARIANS TO REPORT ALL CASES OF RABIES; PROVIDING PENALTIES; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS: Section 1. License Required; fees, term. It shall be unlawful for any person ~thin the city to own, keep, possess, harbor or to allow to remain upon premises under his control, any dog, male or female, without having obtained a license therefor. The fee for such license shall be one dollar per year for each dog, payable in advance. All licenses shall expire December 31st, and shall not be issued for less than one year. Section 2. Vaccination required before issuance of license. No license shall be issued for any dog owned, kept, possessed, harbored or allowed upon the premises of any person and under his control unless such dog shall have first been vaccinated against rabies by a veterinarian duly licensed to practice in the state, within twelve months prior to the issuance of sach license. There shall be delivered to the city secretary prior to the issuance of such license, a certificate signed by a veterinarian duly licensed to practice within the state, that such dog has been duly vaccinated and giving the date of the vaccination thereof. Section 3. Issuance of licenses and tags. Upon receipt of the certificate of vaccination and the payment of the license fee, as provided in the two preceding sections, the city secretary shall issue a receipt, license and numbered metal tag. Section 4. Metal tags to be attached :;0 dog; removal. The metal tag provided for in the imm~diately preceding section shall be securely fastened in some manner to such dog. It shall be unlawful for any person to remove such metal tag from any dog without the written consent of the owner of such dog. Section 5. Record of licenses to be kept. The city secretary shall keep a register of all licenses issued in which shall be entered the name of the applicant, description of the dog, the number of the license and the tag issued and the date of issuance and expiration. Section 6. Appointment of p':1undmaster; term; compensation. The city council shall appoint, for a period to be terminated at its pleasure, a qualified person to act in the capacity of poundmaster, whose duty it shall be to see that the provisions of this article are enforced. For his services the poundmaster shall receive such compensation as shall be fixed by the city council. Section 7. Running at large prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to permit any dog, possessed, kept or harbor~d by him to be at large, unless leashed, on the streets, or public places, or on private premises not under the control of the owner, within the city, whether a license for such dog shall have been secured or not. Section 8. Impounding dogs running at large; redemption; receipts. It shall be the duty of the poundmaster or any police officer of the city to take up any dog found running at large, and confine such dog in the city pound for seventy-two hours, during which time the owner, upon satisfactory p1'"oof to the poundmaster of ownership, may redeem his dog upon the payment of the following fees: for taking up and impounding, per head, $3.00; for taking care of dogs, per day, per head, $1. 00; for release to the owner, per head, $1. 00: for selling, per head, $1. 00; for preparing and posting advertisement of sale, $1. 00; for newspaper advertisern:~t, the actual cost of such advertisement, and in the event that more than one dog is adv-ertised in the same advertisement, such cost per head shall be divid,ed equally among the dogs sold or redeemed. Upon the payment of such fees, the poundmaster shall issue an official receipt for the amomt paid. Such fees shall be delivered to the city treasurer and credited to the general fund of the city. The pound- master shall provide, at the cost of the city, suitable and necessary sustenance for all dogs so impounded. Section 9. Disposition of unredeemed dogs. If the owner of any dog imp mmded und~r the provisions of this article shall not apply to the poundmaster and pay such fees as herein provided within seventy-two hours from the time such dog is confined in the city pound, the poundmaster is hereby authorized to sell such dog at private sale, and the proceeds of such sale shall be deposited with the city treasurer and credited to the general fund of the city. In the event the owner fails to claim such dog within the time provided by this article, and the poundmaster is unable to sell such dog, it shall be the duty of the poundmaster to destroy same. Section 10. Poundma,ster to make monthly reports. The poundmaster shall, monthly, or at such other times as may be required by the city council, account to the city for all monies received by him by virtue of his official duties. He shall at the same time render to the city council a full statement of all dogs received into the pound during the month, showing the name of the owner, if know, the date when received, a description of all of the dogs redeemed and the date of redemption, a description of all of those sold and the date of sale, and of all of those d'~stroyed, and ;'I,ll of the monies expended by him during the month for the maintenance of such pound, and he shall attach to such statement a receipt for all such monies. F01'ms for such reports shall be furnished by the city secretary of the city. Section II. Quarantine of dogs which have bitten person; disposal of infected dogs. Every animal of the dog kind that has rabies or symptoms thereof, or any animal that bites, scratches or otherwise attacks any person within the corporate limits of the city, shall be immediately and securely confined by the owner, or one having custody, by tying with a chain of good quality for a period of fourteen days in such a place that no p~rson or animal may be bitten by it, and there held subject to inspection from time to time so as to be able to determine whether such animal is affected by rabies, or such animal shall be quarantined and held for a like tim~ in any veterinary hospital approved by the city councilor shall be held a t the city pound for IO\lrteen days, after which time the dog shall be killed if in quarantine at the city pound. Section 12. Confinement and examination of dogs suspected of having rabies. Any animal of the dog kind that has rabies or symptoms thereof, or that is suspected of having rabies or that has been exposed to rabies, shall be at once released to the dog catcher for disposal or confined in a veterinary hospital approved by the city council or immedia tely and securely confined by tying with a chain of good quality and kept there under the supervision of the city council for a period:>f not less than sixty days. Section 13. All cases of rabies to be reported. It shall be the duty of the owner or the harborer of any dog or the practicing veterinarian to report to the city secretary all cases of rabies with which he com;-;s in contact or to which his attention has been directed. This report shall be mad,~ imm·:diately upon diagnosis or suspicion of such cases of rabies. Section 14. Penalties. Any person guilty of the violation of any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be fined not to exceed $100.00, and each day of such violation shall constitute a separate offense. Section 15. Severability. If any provision, section, claus-e 01' phase of the foregoing ordinance be held unconstitutional or invalid for any reason, such holding shall not invalidate the remaining provisions of thi.s ordinance, and the city council hereby declares that it would have passed the remaining provisions anyway. Section 16. Emergency. The fact that the city has no ordinance with reference to the licensing, running at large, or any of the other provisions of the foregoing ordinance, and the further fact that a large number of dogs :run at large wi thin the city, and that in several instances people have been bitten by dogs running at large and without leash on the public ways and the private property of others, and that such condition creates an undue hazard to the health, safety and general welfare, creates an emergency and an imperatiJe public necessity that any rule requiring that ordinances be read on three several days or at different meetings of the cœ.ncil be suspended, and such rules are hereby suspended, and this ordinance shall be effective immediately upon passage and publicatio~. PASSED by a vote of day of October, 1958. 5 ayes and o noes on this 15th LAURA RA Y Laura Ray, City Secretary APPROVED this 15ht day of October, 1958. THOMAS W. MCFARLAND T. S. McFarland; Mayor (Seal)