(a) Upon receipt of a complaint submitted to the animal review official, the animal review official shall review the complaint and upon review it is determined the dog is a potentially dangerous dog, the animal review official or police officer shall serve the municipal civil infraction upon the owner of the dog. In the event that the animal review official or police officer personally observes a potentially dangerous dog then he or she shall serve a municipal civil infraction upon the owner of the dog.
(b) Upon the owner of the dog being served the civil infraction, if the owner does not appear or contest the municipal civil infraction, or after a hearing, if the court determines or finds the owner responsible for having a potentially dangerous dog, the defendant is responsible for a municipal civil infraction and shall pay a fine of not less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) and not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) together with court costs. If it is determined the dog is dangerous, the fine will be a minimal of five hundred dollars ($500.00) plus court costs.
(c) If any person owns a dog that has been determined to be potentially dangerous pursuant to this section, the owner has ten days from the date of being found responsible to comply with the following:
(1) Register the dog with the Lincoln Park Police Department as a potentially dangerous dog and pay an annual registration fee of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a spayed or neutered animal, two hundred dollars($200.00) for an intact animal. If the dog is deemed dangerous pursuant to subsection (d) hereof, the owner will pay a registration fee of three hundred dollars ($300.00). The registration will be renewed annually. This registration fee is in addition to the license required under Chapter 610. The owner will purchase a special identifying collar from the Police Department at the owner's expense. The collar will be worn by the animal at all times.
(2) Maintain the dog at all times in a proper enclosure as described in Section 620.02(e).
(3) Post the premises where the dog is kept with a clearly visible sign warning that the dog on the premises is potentially dangerous to others. The lettering on the sign shall be visible for a distance of forty feet or more.
(d) Responsibilities of owner. It shall be a violation to:
(1) Keep a potentially dangerous dog without a valid certificate of registration required by this section.
(2) Permit a potentially dangerous dog to be outside a proper enclosure unless the potentially dangerous dog is under the control of a responsible adult eighteen years or older and restrained by a suitable leash of 300 pounds tensile strength, not exceeding four feet in length.
(3) Fail to notify the animal review official or Police Department immediately if the potentially dangerous dog is on the loose, is unconfined, has attacked another domestic animal, has attacked a human being, has died, has been sold, or has been given away. If the potentially dangerous dog has been sold or given away, the owner shall also provide the animal control officer with the name, address, and telephone number of the new owner of the potentially dangerous dog.
(4) Fail to surrender the potentially dangerous dog to the animal review official for safe confinement pending a disposition of the case when there is a reason to believe that the potentially dangerous dog possess a threat to public safety; or failure to comply with any special security or care requirements for a potentially dangerous dog that the animal review official may determine is necessary for public safety.
(Res. 2011-92A. Passed 5-2-11.)