(A) (1) It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to keep or harbor within the city, a vicious dog that shall bite or fiercely attach any person or domestic animal while outside of its owner’s yard or enclosure or real estate.
(2) The section shall not apply where a person shall break into or enter without the permission the premises or enclosure of such dog and be pursued therefrom and attacked or bitten by the dog.
(B) All vicious dogs shall be confined in an enclosure. It shall be unlawful for any owner or keeper to maintain a vicious dog upon any premises which does not have a locked enclosure.
(C) It shall be unlawful for any owner or keeper to allow any vicious dog to be outside of the dwelling of the owner or keeper or outside of the enclosure unless the owner or keeper has the vicious dog under proper restraint, and under the direct control and supervision of the owner or keeper of the vicious dog.
(D) The owner or keeper of a vicious dog shall display a sign on his or her premises warning that there is a vicious dog on the premises. Such sign shall be visible and capable of being read from the public street. The sign shall be a minimum of two square feet in area.
(E) The owner or keeper shall immediately notify the county’s Dog Warden and the Police Department if a vicious dog is on the loose, is unconfined, has attacked another animal or has attached a human being or has died.
(F) The county’s Dog Warden or peace officer is hereby empowered to make whatever inquiry is deemed necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions hereof, subject to the right of such owner or keeper to contest the seizure or impoundment, as provided in this chapter, in the county’s District Court.
(G) In the event that the owner or keeper of the dog refuses to surrender the dog to the county’s Dog Warden, the county’s Dog Warden may obtain a search warrant from a judge of the county’s District Court to seize the dog upon the execution of the warrant.
(H) No person shall walk or exercise a vicious dog within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, day nursery, playground, hospital or fairground.
(I) No more than two vicious dogs may be kept at a singular site or residence. This section shall not apply to duly licensed kennels.
(J) No vicious dog may be kept on a chain tied to a fixed point outside an enclosure.
(Prior Code, § 90.17) (Ord. 17-2000, passed 9-25-2000) Penalty, see § 90.99