Manatee County Approves Animal Ordinance Changes

The Manatee County Commission voted unanimously today to pass changes to the county's current animal ordinance, with one portion of the changes to be removed, revised and discussed at a later date.

The ordinance changes including three major revisions:

1. Owners are prohibited from tethering an animal outside unless the owner is also outside and can see the animal. The fear, proponents of this change say, is that animals that are tethered (either chained or tied) for long periods of time become more aggressive, may be forgotten, starve to death, get deep lacerations on their necks from the leash and are vulnerable to mating with stay animals.
2. The amount of time animals will be held in Manatee County Animal Services before they can be transferred for adoption has reduced from seven days to three days for cats and five days for dogs. So if an owner doesn't claim their pet in that time, it can be adopted by another citizen.
3. The third change regarding health requirements for selling an animal lead to some debate. Animal Services is asking that in order to sell a pet, the owner must provide a health certificate from a veterinarian. Although this is currently a state law that carries a $1,000 fine, it's not being enforced, said Commissioner At Large Carol Whitmore. "The Animal Services Advisory Board, added it to our county ordinance because the state doesn't have enough people to enforce it," she said.

Commissioner At Large Joe McClash expressed concern that including the requirement for a health certificate would be a hardship for people who are not breeders, due to the additional expense of seeing a vet, and that they may inadvertently break the law. "I'm tired of laws that force people to become in violation of a law that a lot of them won't even know about," he said. "Just because the state has the law, doesn't mean it's the right law."

Kristopher J. Weiskopf, Animal Services chief, explained the reasoning for the proposed change. "Our whole point of this section of the ordinance is to make sure that those people that are out there that are purchasing from private individuals or whomever it may be who's selling these dogs and cats, to make sure that [the animals] are healthy, free of parasites, they've been seen by a veterinarian and most importantly of all, over 4 months of age, making sure that they are rabies vaccinated," he said.

Sue Kolze, vice president of Animal Network, Inc., chimed in during public comments to stress the importance of pet owner responsibility. "If you have your cat or dog up to date on its shots, as it should be, the vet says, 'here's a health certificate,'" she said. "Be responsible. Either have your pet spayed or neutered or if you're going to have a litter, you're going to have to get a health certificate to give them away or to sell them."

The focus of the health certificate requirement is not geared to people who want to give their pet away, explained Jean Peelen chair of Animal Services Advisory Board. "That entire legislation was approved by the board," she said. "We're not aiming at individual pet owners who may need to give a pet away. The major concern is backyard breeders, and we have a lot of them in manatee county. These are people who are breeding for profit and selling their dogs for $150, 300, $500, $800...

"These dogs do not have health certificates and it's our citizens who are being deilvered sick dogs are dogs with communicable diseases."

During the meeting, commissioners expressed concern about the wording of the ordinance and some confusion about whether the certificate was required only when selling the pet, but not when giving it away for free. The wording in the county ordinance specified that the health certificate was necessary when selling or "transferring" the pet, which would mean it was required whether or not money was exchanged. This created some confusion because it was believed to have been copied from the state ordinance.

However, Joel Richmond, Animal Services officer, cleared up the matter by saying the wording in the state ordinance was "transport into the state," not "transfer." Upon learning of the mistake, the commissioners quickly decided to remove the health certificate portion of the ordinance, have it revised, then revisited at another meeting.

And with that, the commissioners voted 7-0 to approve the rest of the animal ordinance changes.