Animal Control and ignorance of the laws

linda_of_pgff

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Hi Mark,

Thank you for spending the time researching and answering all of our questions here!

I am wrestling in my area with the situation that our animal ordinances have been changing over the past twenty years, but there has apparently been no attempt to notify the public of the content or the changes. If the community at large has standards for, say, a pet limit, that are vastly different from the legislated pet limit, my old philosophy of law prof said it's a guarantee that the law cannot truly be enforced. What does this do about the rest of those laws about pets, doesn't it decrease the effectiveness of those, also?

It's a wierd position to find yourself in to be explaining laws to people as a rescuer. They think we're crazy, because we're telling them that they are already over the "pet limit" or that it's perfectly fine for someone to trap their pet cat and take it to the shelter without telling them. I think this ought to be a responsibility of our local enforcement agencies, and not of the rescuers in our community.

Have you seen some good models for educating the public about animal law around the country? I'd especially like to know what Animal Control agencies you think do a good job of promoting their own laws.

Thanks!
 

mark kumpf

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First, convincing the ACO that they need to do it is 98% of the battle. As for examples - my city does a great job.

We do:
Citizen's Environmental Codes Academy
Citizen's Police Academy
Every civic league we can attend
Kids Against Rabies
School Humane Education Program

We have developed:
Handouts for animal codes, common problems, taking people to court

We promote:
Spay / Neuter
Microchip
Rabies Clinics

For laws:
Codes Committee (with citizens) that reviews ALL codes
Public Notices & Hearings on codes
(Exotic Permits, new codes, Dogs in Open vehicles)

All of the above are designed with educating and informing the general citizens about what we plan to do.
 
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