(A) Every animal that bites or scratches a person shall be reported within four hours to the Police Chief or the animal control officer and shall thereupon be securely quarantined at the town’s animal shelter or a veterinary hospital, all at the owner’s expense, for a period of ten days. The animal shall not be released from such quarantine except by permission of the Health Officer of the town and a licensed veterinarian hospital chosen by the owner, if the owner agrees to pay for the quarantine in advance. Failure of the owner to quarantine his or her animal will make him or her guilty of an offense.
(B) In the case of stray animals, or in the case of animals whose ownership is not known, such quarantine shall be at the animal shelter.
(C) The owner, upon a demand by an employee empowered to enforce this chapter, shall forthwith surrender any animal which has bitten or scratched a human or which is suspected of having been exposed to rabies for supervised quarantine, the expenses for which shall be borne by the owner. The animal may be reclaimed by the owner if adjudged free of rabies.
(D) When an animal under quarantine has been diagnosed as being rabid, or is suspected by a licensed veterinarian as being rabid, and dies while under such observation, the animal control officer or veterinarian shall immediately send the head of such animal to the State Health Department for pathological examination and shall notify the proper public health officer of reports of human contact and diagnoses made of the suspected animal.
(E) When one or both reports give a positive diagnosis of rabies, the Health Officer of the town may recommend a town-wide quarantine for a period of six months, and upon the invoking of such quarantine, no animal shall be taken into the streets or permitted to be in the streets during such period of quarantine. During such quarantine, no animal shall be taken or shipped from the town without the written permission of the Health Officer of the town or the animal control officer.
(F) During such period of rabies quarantine as herein designated, every animal bitten by an animal adjudged to be rabid shall be treated for such rabies infection by a licensed veterinarian or held under a six-month quarantine by the owner in the same manner as other animals are quarantined.
(G) In the event that there are additional positive cases of rabies occurring during the period of quarantine, such period of quarantine may be extended for an additional six months.
(H) No person shall kill or cause to be killed any rabid animal, any animal suspected of having been exposed to rabies or any animal biting or scratching a human, except as herein provided, nor remove the same from the town limits without written permission from the Health Officer of the town or the animal control officer.
(I) The carcass of any dead animal exposed to rabies shall be surrendered to the animal control officer upon demand.
(J) The animal control officer shall direct the disposition of any animal found to be infected with rabies.
(K) No person shall fail or refuse to surrender any animal for quarantine or destruction as required herein when a demand is made therefor by an employee empowered to enforce this chapter. Such refusal shall be deemed an offense.
(L) It is the duty of every physician, veterinarian or other practitioner to report to the animal control officer the names and addresses of persons treated for bites inflicted by animals, together with such other information as will be helpful in rabies control.
(M) It is the duty of every licensed veterinarian to report to the town’s animal control officer his or her diagnosis of any animal observed by him or her to be a rabies suspect.
(Prior Code, § 4-150) Penalty, see § 95.99