Proposed changes to city code regarding animals will go before Springfield City Council Monday night.
The proposed revisions to Chapter 18 include raising fees for having a dog running loose and creating a more efficient and graduated process to increase the consequences for repeat offenders.
"We've had some ongoing issues of animals, especially dogs, running through neighborhoods and kind of creating some both fear and safety issues and frustrations for neighborhoods," said Jon Moody, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. "We've had our animal control program and our officers do an outstanding job with responding to the calls, but they have some limited capacities. And as we took a look at the tools that they have at their disposal through the ordinances, we realize that there's some opportunities to create some improvements, just to be able to better respond to those animal issues in the neighborhoods and help improve neighborhood safety."
Other proposed changes are requiring documentation of rabies vaccination for animals involved in bites and partnership with Animal Control for an observation period; providing a simpler path for removing animals from abusive households and re-homing them through a rescue organization; and requiring individuals to provide personally identifiable information such as legal name and data birth when an animal control officer believes that person has violated Chapter 18.
"Animal control officers are not commissioned peace officers, such as a police officer. So, they do not have the ability to require someone to provide proof of identifiable information such as name and date of birth. And so, sometimes that creates some challenges for officers as they respond in the field," said Moody. "And, and one of the changes in the ordinance or one of the proposed changes would make that a requirement that individuals would have some expectation to be able to cooperate with animal control officers as they respond to calls."
The proposed changes also include language clarifications in the regulations for pit bull owners and reduction of penalties for failure to register a pit bull. Moody said the current ordinance reflects when there was a potential ban on the breed in the Springfield city limits. He said the proposed revisions don't change anything for owners of pit bulls.
The changes will be up for a public hearing and first reading Monday night at the Springfield City Council meeting. It starts at 6:30 at the Springfield Regional Police-Fire Training Center on W. Battlefield.
