COUNTY UNITS TO DISCUSS ANIMAL CONTROL

Representatives of agencies dealing with Cape Girardeau County's stray animals will meet Friday to see if a cooperative arrangement is possible to handle nuisance animals.

The meeting stems from work to draft a county animal nuisance ordinance.

Representatives from the county humane society, Cape Girardeau and Jackson police, the sheriff's department, the state highway department, the county health department and others will attend.

"We need to work out who is available, where we would be going with the animals and how this might work," said Charlotte Craig, director of the health department.

She and Ian Sutherland, assistant county prosecutor, have been drafting the ordinance. The animal control ordinance is the first part of a comprehensive set of county nuisance abatement laws.

"We're really not interested in Gestapo tactics for people with dogs," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones. "A half dozen phone calls would probably cover a whole year, but when we can't do a dad-gum thing about it, it's a problem."

The county commission wants some method to deal with dangerous animals and has made nuisance abatement ordinances its first priority.

Since Jan. 1 when the county achieved first-class status, the commission has had the authority to pass ordinances for the county's unincorporated areas.

The proposed ordinance has three parts. One deals with property owners allowing animals to run at large. These would be investigated only after a complaint. The other two sections deal with health, safety and vaccination of animals.

"We toyed with the idea of enforcement," Sutherland said, but instead, he and Craig agreed to deal with infractions through state laws. "If we want to play ball, we can charge them with a state crime."

Commissioner Larry Bock expressed a concern about the provision in the proposed ordinance that would require animal owners to keep pets contained to their property.

"That won't fly in the county," Bock said. "Dogs just don't stay on your property."

Sutherland said the key to successful implementation of the nuisance ordinance will be hiring an able animal control officer.

"He can go out and talk to the people and see what the situation is," Sutherland said.

Before moving ahead with adoption of an ordinance, commissioners wanted to see if other agencies were interested in a cooperative arrangement for dealing with animals. Cape Girardeau police have animal control officers. Jackson and the sheriff's department don't. The highway department has a system to deal with dead animals found along roadways.