CROTHERSVILLE — Between calls to the town hall and police department and posts on social media, there are a lot of stray dogs running around Crothersville.
According to the town’s animal ordinance, all dogs and cats shall be kept under restraint when outside.
Any pet owner in violation of the ordinance is subject to a $25 fine for the first offense. Fines for each subsequent offense within 12 consecutive months increase in increments of $25 per offense.
Failure to restrain a vicious dog or potentially dangerous dog could result in a $100 fine for the first offense. Fines for each subsequent offense within 12 consecutive months are $100 per offense.
The impoundment procedure portion of the ordinance, however, needs some revision, town officials said during a recent Crothersville Town Council meeting.
Dogs and cats that are at-large, a nuisance, suspected of being neglected, subjected to cruelty or abandoned or have bitten a person or another animal may be taken by law enforcement and impounded by the town.
In lieu of impounding a dog that is at-large or a public nuisance, the officer may issue the owner a notice of ordinance violation and return the dog to them if it can be secured safely. Impoundment and other fees also may apply.
When the owner of a dog or a cat can’t be determined, the animal shall be held for three calendar days and become the property of the town. If it’s not reclaimed during that period, it remains the property of the town and may be placed for adoption or humanely euthanized.
Crothersville Police Department Chief Matt Browning said something has to be done with that part of the ordinance.
“Take it out of the book. It’s useless right now,” he told the town council. “The ordinance has an entire section of impounding animals that we don’t do, which makes that null and void. We need to figure something out. We can write tickets until we’re blue in the face and nothing changes.”
The ordinance states the town council shall designate someone to pick up stray animals, but First Deputy Michele Teipen said that’s not in the town employees’ job descriptions.
“They’ve got enough on their plates,” she said. “It’s not the police department’s place to have to pick them up.”
Teipen said a portion of town residents’ taxes go to the county dog shelter, but that facility in Brownstown refuses to pick up any stray dogs or cats in Crothersville.
“Why? I don’t know. We have asked several times, and they refuse, so we’re kind of stuck,” she said.
Browning said the county’s animal control officer only picks up stray dogs outside of the four municipalities.
Councilman Jamy Greathouse echoed Teipen’s thoughts on taxes being paid to the county. He said he would like to go to a county commissioners meeting to ask questions, but those are held early in the morning two Tuesdays a month when he’s at work.
Mason Boicourt, the town’s utility director, said 10 years ago, he went to a commissioners meeting to discuss the issue, but they weren’t interested in helping the town.
“I don’t know how the county can refuse services that the taxpayers are paying,” Greathouse said. “Maybe that’s something that we need to look at our law firm and see how they are able to do that, how they are able to pick and choose what taxpayers they are going to offer the services to even though all taxpayers are paying the same. If they have that ability to pick and choose what taxpayers get these services that all taxpayers are paying for, then we need to do something about it.”
Boicourt said town employees haven’t been picking up any stray animals because there’s no place to take them.
“We can bring them out to the sewer plant, but you keep them five days and then what?” he said.
The town also doesn’t have an agreement with any organization that will take the stray animals that aren’t claimed.
“Luckily, for the past year or so, a lot of them have been pets that were claimed within a reasonable time,” Boicourt said.
“It’s always showing up on the Crothersville Bulletin Board (Facebook page), ‘Hey, this dog is running around,’ and you see the same ones over and over and over. There’s really no point in even responding because there’s nothing we can do,” he said. “Most of the calls we get, the owners are found within a couple hours or they are never found. There’s no in between.”
Clerk-Treasurer Danieta Foster said the fees the town charges to the pet owner don’t cover the overtime or double time paid to town employees who have to take time outside of their work schedule to deal with a stray animal issue.
“We have to figure out something to do with all of these animals that we’re getting calls on daily,” she said.
Greathouse made a motion to suspend the impoundment section of the animal ordinance until the council is able to get clarification on what service the county offers and explore agreements with organizations that can help the town.
That was seconded and unanimously passed.
“Let the Facebook posts do what it has been doing 99% of the time anyway, and if there is a call of aggressive behavior toward another animal or toward a person, we’ll have to do what we have to do there as far as keeping the community safe,” Greathouse said. “But the rest of them, let them go until we can figure out something else.”