City Council to Consider Amending Ordinance on Dangerous Animals

Don Purdum
Post Editor

December 2, 2008

Tuesday night, the Forney City Council will consider an amendment to the Animal Control Ordinance that gives animal control officers more flexibility in defining an animal as “dangerous” and the means with which they can handle the animal.

Over the last number of months, Council Members Darren Rozzell and Andy Parker have questioned why the city has not amended the Animal Control Ordinance and wanted to know were the city stood with the proposed ordinance change.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, "There are over 4.5 million dog bites each year. This is an estimate as there is no central reporting agency for dog bites, thus breed and other information is not captured. Out of the millions of bites, about 10-20 are fatal each year."

In addition, The Centers for Disease Control concluded that 800,000 dog bites per year are serious enough to require medical attention.

As recent as September, three vicious dogs violently attacked an eight year-old girl and her godmother just south of Forney off of I-20 (click here to watch CBS 11 video coverage).

Under the current ordinance, vicious is defined as “Any individual animal of any species that has without provocation attacked or bitten any person or other animal, or any individual animal which the animal control officer has reason to believe has a dangerous disposition likely to be harmful to humans or other animals whether it inflicts injury or not.”

If approved, the new ordinance will not have a definition of “vicious,” but instead will clarify and add “Dangerous Animal” and “Dangerous Propensities.”

The new definition of Dangerous Animal would be defined as, “without provocation, has attacked or bitten any individual; without provocation and while outside its enclosure, has attacked or bitten any animal causing death or serious bodily injury; is determined by the animal services officer or a veterinarian appointed by the city to have dangerous propensities; or the animal services officer has reason to believe the animal has dangerous propensities or a dangerous disposition likely to be harmful to humans or animals, regardless of whether it has attacked, bitten, or injured an individual or animal.

The new definition of Dangerous Propensities “means, without provocation, any one, or a combination of, the animal behaviors of biting, snarling, charging aggressively toward an individual or animal, growling with curled lips, popping of teeth, or barking with raised hackles.”

The purpose of the change in ordinance would be to provide Animal Control Officers the ability to proactively deal with dangerous dogs, among other requirements for pet owners.

The ordinance does not ban any breed.

The last time the animal control regulations were updated was 1993.

The Post will cover tonight’s meeting and will update this article on Wednesday morning.

The Forney City Council will meet tonight in the City Hall Council Chambers located at 101 E. Main Street, beginning at 7:00 p.m.