(a) Annual License Tax. Every person owning or keeping any dog within the City, either male or female, shall pay a tax of three dollars ($3.00) on every dog so kept or owned. This tax shall be payable at the time of assessment annually.
(b) Tags. Upon payment of the dog tax required by subsection (a), a tag shall be issued, identifying the dog and the tax year. The tag shall be attached and kept attached to a substantial collar worn by the dog.
(c) Running at Large.
(1) No owner or person having the possession of any dog shall allow such dog to run at large, at any time, within the City, even though the dog is both lawfully licensed and vaccinated. Any person violating this article and/or section, regardless of whether or not such dog is impounded or not, upon conviction, shall be fined a minimum of two dollars ($2.00) for the first offense in any one year, and for each successive violation in any one year, shall be fined a minimum of five dollars ($5.00), with a maximum fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for any offense, whether in any one year or subsequent.
(2) In addition, all owners or person having the possession of any dog that is considered a dangerous or vicious dog as outlined in Section 1102.13(c)(6) and having attained the proper permit through the City of Charles Town, as described in Section 1102.13(e), to own such dog shall construct a fence on the property, built to the appropriate specifications as outlined in the City Building Codes and Ordinances, to provide adequate space for exercise on a dimension of at least one hundred square feet, to allow for a healthy free roaming area for the dog as described by the Humane Society of the United States.
(d) Tethering. No person shall, at any time, fasten, chain or tie any dog or cause such dog to be fastened, chained or tied in an inhumane manner or for an unreasonable amount of time while such dog is on the owner’s property or on the property of the dog owner’s landlord.
(e) Impoundment of Dogs At Large. Any dog found at large in violation of this section shall be impounded by any policeman or other person authorized to do so by Council. Notice of such impoundment shall be given to the owner or person in possession of such dog, if known. Any dog so impounded may be redeemed by the owner within five days upon payment of a pound fee to be determined by Council by resolution. Any dog not redeemed within five days may be sold or destroyed. The pound fee to be paid to redeem a dog shall be in addition to any fine imposed for a violation of this article.
(f) Rabies; Quarantine. Whenever the Mayor shall be satisfied that any case of rabies has appeared among the dogs in the City, he shall issue his proclamation requiring all persons to confine their dogs or to have the same securely muzzled for such time from and after the issuing of such proclamation as he shall therein appoint, and if any dog shall be found at large in the City during the time so appointed, without being properly and securely muzzled, the same may be killed by any person whatsoever, and the owner or keeper thereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(g) Vicious Dogs.
(1) No person shall own, keep or harbor any dog known by him or which, in the exercise of reasonable diligence he should know, to be vicious, dangerous or in the habit of bitting or attacking persons.
(2) No person shall own, keep or harbor any dog known by him or which, in the exercise of reasonable diligence he should know, to be suffering with rabies.
(3) Vicious or dangerous dogs are hereby declared to be public nuisances and a menace to the public safety.
(4) If the Mayor shall find, as a result of a hearing held upon a compliant, that any dog is vicious, dangerous or in the habit of biting or attacking persons, or in suffering with rabies infection, or that any dog has been bitten by a dog suffering with rabies infection, he may order or cause such dog to be destroyed as a menace to the public safety, and the owner or keeper of such dog shall be liable for all fines and costs assessed.
(Passed 5-4-06.)