Unless otherwise specified, the following words and phrases shall be defined as follows:
(a) Animal: Any live creature. Every living creature, both domestic or wild, excluding human beings, including, but not limited to, dog, cat, horse, pig, cow, fowl, fish or reptile.
(b) Animal control officer: An employee or agent of the City, performing such duties as prescribed by the Mayor, or his or her designee, to administer and enforce the requirements contained within this chapter. A Christopher police officer shall have the same authority under this chapter as the animal control officer.
(c) Cat: All members of the Felidae family.
(d) Chicken: An individual animal maintained for the production of eggs, of the species Gallus gallus, specifically not including roosters, which are the male of the species.
(e) Chicken coop: A structure suitable to house chickens that is enclosed on all sides with a roof, door, and windows.
(f) Confined: Restriction at all times in a building, house or enclosure.
(g) Cruelty: Any act or omission whereby unjustifiable physical pain, suffering or death of an animal is caused or permitted, including failure to provide proper drink, air, space, shelter or protection from the elements, a sanitary and safe living environment, veterinary care or nutritious food in sufficient quantity.
(h) Dangerous dog: Any individual dog which when either unmuzzled, unleashed, or unattended by its owner, or a member of the owner’s family, when on any street, sidewalk, or other public place, or private property which is not owned by the owner of such dog, that behaves in such a manner that poses an imminent threat of serious physical injury or death to a reasonable person or their companion animal.
(i) Dog: All members of the Canidae family.
(j) Domestic animal: Any dog, cat, domesticated sheep, horse, cow, goat, swine, fowl, duck, goose, turkey, confined domestic hare and rabbit, pheasant, chicken, and other birds and animals raised and/or maintained in confinement.
(k) Enclosure: A fence or structure of at least six feet in height, forming or causing an enclosure suitable to prevent the entry of young children, and suitable to confine a dangerous dog in conjunction with other measures that may be taken by the owner or keeper, such as tethering of the dangerous dog within the enclosure. The enclosure shall be securely enclosed and locked and designed with secure sides, top, and bottom and shall be capable of preventing the animal from escaping from the enclosure. If the enclosure is a room within a residence, the door must be locked.
(l) Feral cat: A cat that is born in the wild or is the offspring of an owned or feral cat, and is not socialized, or a formerly owned cat that has been abandoned and is no longer socialized, or lives on a farm.
(m) Impounded: The taking into custody by the public animal control facility.
(n) Livestock: Any bison, calf, cattle, chicken, donkey, duck, fowl, goat, goose, horse, mule, pony, sheep, swine, or turkey.
(o) Owner: Any person who:
(1) Has a right or interest in an animal,
(2) Keeps or harbors an animal,
(3) Has an animal in his or her care or custody, or
(4) Knowingly permits an animal to remain on or about any premises occupied by him or her without taking steps to remove said animal within three days; and/or
(5) Provides nourishment, including but not limited to food or water, to an animal.
(p) Peace officer: As defined in Section 2-13 of the Criminal Code of 1961.
(q) Person: Any individual, firm, corporation, public or private institution, partnership, trust, society, or association, State of Illinois or municipality, or any legal entity.
(r) Physical injury: The impairment of a physical condition.
(s) Police animal: An animal owned or used by a law enforcement department, fire department, or other enforcement agency in the course of the department’s or agency’s work.
(t) Pound: An animal control facility approved by the Mayor or his or her designee and used as a shelter for seized, stray, homeless, abandoned or unwanted animals.
(u) Public animal control facility: Any animal control facility approved by the Mayor or his or her designee and used as a shelter for seized, stray, homeless, abandoned or unwanted animals.
(v) Public nuisance animal: Any animal that unreasonably annoys or endangers the life or health of persons or other animals, or substantially interferes with the rights of persons, other than the owners of the animal, to enjoyment of life or property. The term “public nuisance animal” shall include, but not be limited to:
(1) Any animal that damages, soils, defiles or defecates on any property other than that of its owner;
(2) Any animal that makes repeated, unreasonable, and disturbing noises, including, but not limited to, continued, repeated and excessive howling, barking, whining, or other utterances which cause unreasonable annoyance, disturbance or discomfort to neighbors or others of ordinary sensibilities who are in close proximity to the premises where the animal is kept or harbored;
(3) Any animal that causes fouling of the air by noxious or offensive odors and thereby creates unreasonable annoyance or discomfort to neighbors or others in close proximity to the premises where the animal is kept or harbored.
(w) Run at large: To be free of any restraint, leash, cord, chain, or otherwise not in the control or custody of a person physically capable of restraining the animal when the animal is not upon the owner’s premises.
(x) Serious physical injury: Physical injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or that causes death, serious or protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health, impairment of the function of any bodily organ, or plastic surgery.
(y) Vicious dog: Any individual dog that:
(1) When unprovoked and without justification, inflicts a bite to a human being or any other animal whether on public or private property;
(2) Attacks a human being or domestic animal without justification and causes serious physical injury or death; or
(3) Has been found to be a “dangerous dog” upon three separate occasions.
(Ord. 1016. Passed 9-12-22; Ord. 1,019. Passed 11-14-22.)