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Committee’s list to city
•Mandatory spaying and neutering, regardless of the severity of the bite.
•No tethering of dogs younger than 6 months old.
•No tethering dogs between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
•Tethered dogs must be kept three feet from property lines and public rights of way, including in fenced yards.
•Only three dogs can be tethered at one house at one time.
Published: October 25, 2007 4:41 a.m.

Dogs that bite will be neutered under plan

Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette
Lewis

Fort Wayne residents who want to tether their dogs outside or whose dogs escape and bite may be forced to have them spayed or neutered.

A community task force examining dog bite laws recommended several changes to the city’s dog ownership rules Wednesday. One of those changes increases restrictions for owners of pets that are deemed potentially dangerous. The tag would be placed on dogs that bite while running loose.

Belinda Lewis, director of Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control, said the group supported different tiers for potentially dangerous animals, depending on how severe a dog bites a human or other animal. The group, however, voted to include mandatory spaying and neutering regardless of the severity of the bite. Lewis said spaying and neutering reduces animals’ aggression.

Other requirements for owners of potentially dangerous animals include court-ordered education and stricter housing rules for the dog. Lewis said the group agreed to the ideas in principle, but it will be up to the city to write the language of the law.

The group, which included City Councilmen Tom Didier, R-3rd, and Tim Pape, D-5th, also supported regulating habitual offenders of animal cruelty or animal bite laws. People who repeatedly break those rules would face harsher penalties, including prohibiting them from owning a pet for a set time.

The group spent much of its discussion Wednesday on laws regarding how dogs can be tethered, or chained, outside.

While not barring the practice, which Lewis says makes a dog more aggressive, the group supported several restrictions for chaining an animal. The group supported requiring spaying and neutering of dogs that are tethered outside to help reduce aggression.

Lewis said the laws will likely cause an initial increase in workload and costs for her department, but she said in the long run they should help reduce animal complaints. She plans to meet with the city’s law department in the next few weeks to draft an ordinance and said she hopes to bring it before the City Council this year.

blanka@jg.net

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