Council asks task force to revisit proposed pet law changes

Cape Girardeau residents would be able to keep up to six dogs or eight cats but would be barred from keeping farm animals inside the city limits under revisions to the pet law presented to the city council Monday night.

But council members said they were reluctant to allow pet owners to keep six dogs. The council asked the animal control task force to reconsider that proposal as well as the one dealing with farm animals.

The council last year limited pet owners to no more than four dogs and four cats in a household.

But the task force, including a representative of the local Humane Society, said they want the limit changed to allow pet owners more flexibility within the total limit of eight animals provided that they are spayed and neutered.

Under the change, no pet owner could have more than four dogs and cats combined unless the animals were spayed and neutered.

Council members said they had no problem with allowing city residents to have up to eight house cats. But they said six dogs in a household is too many.

"I just think six dogs infringes on my rights," Mayor Jay Knudtson said.

Councilwoman Evelyn Boardman agreed. "I don't believe I can justify a six-dog limit," she said.

The proposed revisions, among other things, would require stray animals to be spayed or neutered if they are impounded more than once.

Pet population

Task force member Requi Salter of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri said the added provision would help to control the pet population and animal nuisance problems.

"Unaltered animals will tend to run more and are more likely to bite," she said.

Cape Girardeau resident Jenny Stigers, who attended the task force meetings but wasn't an official member of the group, said she would prefer to see the city restrict farm animals but not ban them in the city limits.

She said some other cities require a property owner to have a certain amount of land and distance from neighbors to keep farm animals.

But Salter said city residents have a reasonable expectation that they won't have to live next to roosters and other farm animals.

The proposed prohibition wouldn't apply to existing farms or stables, officials said.

But city residents who have chickens or other farm animals in their back yards would have to remove their animals if the restriction is approved, police Lt. Mark Majoros said.

He acknowledged pet restrictions won't please some residents. "We knew we weren't going to make everybody happy," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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