Some residents welcome animal control ordinance

By Dawn Treglown

CENTRE — While many local residents have been in an uproar over Cherokee County's proposed animal control ordinance, Centre resident Elizabeth Whitten and some others hope the county and eventually the Centre City Council will adopt many of the measures outlined in the proposal.

Sugar, Whitten's four-year-old rat terrier, was attacked and killed by another dog earlier this month. Whitten hopes something can be done through the proposed animal ordinance to prevent other pet owners from having to experience what she did on Sept. 8.

“Sugar was my baby,” Whitten said. “She made us all happy and brought the best out of our other dog.”

When Whitten traveled out of town a couple weekends ago, she left Sugar and her other dog Puddin' in her yard in Centre. The dogs stayed on their own property thanks to electronic collars and an electronic fence surrounding the home. Neighbors had agreed to feed the dogs, and the dogs appeared to be safe and protected.

But the electronic fence did not keep other dogs from coming onto the property. While Whitten was away, a dog roaming through the neighborhood attacked and killed Sugar. Puddin' was also bitten behind the neck.

“A neighbor said she heard animals barking and making a lot of noise sometime between midnight and daylight,” Whitten said. The next morning, when a neighbor went to feed the dogs, he discovered Sugar covered in blood.

A local veterinarian could not save her. The two puncture wounds had pierced her lung and punctured it.

“I really don't think it was a coyote. The vet said the fangs were wide apart, and I've never seen a coyote in this neighborhood,” Whitten said. “I believe it was a dog that did not belong in my yard.”

She said she would like the county's proposed animal control ordinance to include regulations for pet owners to keep their animals confined to their own property.

“This tragedy could have been prevented if someone had confined their animal to their yard, like I did,” Whitten said. “I would like to know that everybody else's dogs are confined to their yards, just like mine.”

Robert Hite, who lives on County Road 255, attended the public comment meetings and spoke out against aspects of the ordinance he said shouldn't even have been in the proposal, such as language referring to dogs chasing cars down alleyways and running along sidewalks.

"That shouldn't have even been in there to start with because all it did was create a bunch of confusion," he said. "We don't have sidewalks and alleys out in the rural areas of the county, and that's the area this ordinance is supposed to be for."

Hite said he hopes the county will work to remove all the confusing language because he feels there should be some type of law in place to help prevent future attacks like the one that took the life of Whitten's beloved pet.

"Vicious animals are a problem in Cherokee County and they ought to be kept in an enclosed pen or on a leash," he said. "And I agree with the deputy who spoke up and asked that people not be allowed to keep vicious animals chained up close to their doors."

Hite said there are other areas he was disappointed to see left out of the initial draft ordinance.

"There also ought to be something in the law to deal with people who dump unwanted animals on the roadside."

Cherokee County Administrator Tim Burgess said the ordinance will be tackled again and overhauled after the County Commission passes the FY 2008 budget later this month.

“We'll revise the ordinance and put it back out for public comment,” he said.

Burgess said when a new proposed animal ordinance is drawn up, a copy will be handed over to The Post to place on the newspaper's website.

City councils within Cherokee County will have the option of adopting the ordinance as well, once it passes muster with the commissioners. But the process of fine-tuning the ordinance to fit the needs of each of the county's five municipal areas could take months.

As for Whitten, the only place she's convinced her other dog will be save is close by her owner's side.

“Puddin' is with me 24/7 now. I guess she could be considered the newest receptionist here at work,” Whitten said. “I don't know if I'll be able to get her on the payroll, though.”