(a) Except as permitted by West Virginia Code §19-20-21, no person shall own,
keep or harbor any dog known by him to be vicious, dangerous, or in the habit of biting or attacking other persons, whether or not such dog wears a tag or muzzle.
(b) The Animal Control Officer is designated as the person responsible for initially determining that there is probable cause to believe that a dog is a dangerous or vicious dog. The officer may, after appropriate observation at the animal control facilities, determine that the dog is not vicious or dangerous, but rather, that the act of the dog was an anomaly and not the act of a vicious or dangerous animal. This determination shall not be open to dispute through this section. If there is no animal control officer, then the City Manager, in consultation with the Chief of Police, shall appoint a designee to make this initial determination.
(c) An attack or bite alone is not automatically grounds to find that probable cause.
In determining if probable cause exists that the dog is a dangerous dog exists, the Animal Control Officer may consider the dog has any previous history of biting or aggression; did a bite occur; whether the dog was provoked in some manner; the location of the dog; and any other factors the Animal Control Officer, the owner or custodian of the dog, or the alleged victim deem relevant. Provocation is any action by a person which causes the dog to immediately engage in a response that is motivationally different from the response it was engaged in just prior to the action of the person.
(d) If the Animal Control Officer determines that the dog is vicious or dangerous,
then the Animal Control Officer, in connection with the Police Department, shall file a criminal complaint in the Magistrate Court of Harrison County charging that the individual who owns, keeps, or harbors the dog is keeping a vicious dog in violation of West Virginia Code §19-20-20.
(e) The presiding court may order the dog to be euthanized if it finds, by satisfactory proof, that the dog is vicious, dangerous, or in the habit of biting or attacking other persons or other dogs or animals.
(Ord. 23-22. Passed 7-20-23.)