New animal control law creates controversy: Here's what we know - Yahoo News

After Branch County Prosecutor Zack Stempien and Sheriff John Pollack introduced a new "Animal Control and Protection Ordinance," on Feb. 3, it created controversy.

Pollack emphasized that it's "a template, not an ordinance" for county commissioners to enact at township meetings. Townships may review it and adopt it as each sees fit.

Stempien said it was designed for each township since an attorney general's opinion in Ingham County said such a county-wide law was beyond the authority of a commission to pass.

It's like the "model ORV ordinance" the sheriff presented to townships two years ago. That was a suggested model for those who wanted to allow off-road vehicles to use local roads.

"The idea was so the language is standard throughout the whole county. Whether you adopted it or didn't, it was your option," Pollack told the townships. "If you adopted it, you could adjust it to your particular concerns."

Stempien, Pollack, Jan Nageldinger from the Humane Society and Anna Keim from Bloom, a nonprofit animal advocacy and humane education group, spent almost two years drafting the template.

"It's focused on a couple of different things," the prosecutor said. "One would be proper restraints of animals, leashes, things of that nature. Another key topic is what they call puppy mills."

The ordinance tries to balance "The property rights of owners and non-owners of animals need to be protected. That animals require legal protection," it states.

"The last point would be for the consistent requirements for the proper care, custody and control of the animals," Stempien said.

One problem: dogs kept outdoors without proper housing during stretches of extreme cold.

Nageldinger said three dogs chained outside two weekends ago were taken to animal control after wind chill dropped to zero.

"Some owners admitted to us they had dogs that froze to death," he said.

source: https://news.yahoo.com/animal-control-law-raises-questions-141624534.html

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