A. Vicious Or Dangerous Animals:
1. It is the responsibility of any person having care or custody of any animal in Lyon County to make himself aware of the propensities of any animal in his care or custody.
2. An animal is known by the person having care or custody to possess vicious or dangerous propensities if the particular animal has bitten, or attempted to bite, injured or attempted to injure a person or animal and such fact was personally observed by the person having care and custody or the person having care and custody has been informed of such facts by other persons.
3. It is unlawful for any person to have care or custody of any animal in Lyon County which is known to possess vicious or dangerous tendencies unless the following conditions are met:
a. At no time shall such animal leave the private property confines of the person having care or custody of the animal unless it is muzzled, leashed, and under the effective control of an adult.
b. The private property shall be adequately and properly posted with conspicuous warning signs, with a list of names and telephone numbers of handlers of said animal, if applicable.
c. The animal shall be kept, confined or housed within an enclosure that is adequate to ensure the animal's retention and comfort and of a size to permit the animal to stand upright; that is high enough so that the animal cannot bite, harm, or injure anyone by overreaching the top of the fence or other enclosure. The animal shall be kept upon the private property in a manner that will prevent it from biting or injuring any person lawfully upon the property who is not provoking or teasing the animal.
4. Every person having the care or custody of any animal in Lyon County known to said person to possess vicious or dangerous tendencies who fails to keep said animal as required by the above subsection and thereby allows the same to either injure any person or escape and run at large in any place or manner liable to endanger the safety of any person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
5. Any person may lawfully kill any animal known to possess vicious or dangerous tendencies found running at large when reasonably necessary to protect his or her own safety or the safety of other persons or animals.
B. Animals; Noises; Nuisances:
1. It is unlawful for any person to own, keep, harbor or possess any animal, which, by loud or frequent habitual barking, yelping, braying or other noise, causes annoyance to the neighborhood or to any person in the vicinity. It is the duty of the animal services supervisor or officers, upon complaint, to determine the cause of the disturbance and then take appropriate action.
2. It shall be unlawful for the owner or person having custody of any dog to permit, either wilfully or through failure to exercise due care or control of such dog to excrete any solid waste upon any sidewalk, public street or public park; or to excrete any solid waste upon any real property under the control of or in the possession of any other person; or upon the floor of any common hall or in any common area in any apartment house, tenement house, hotel or other multiple dwelling; or upon any entranceway, stairway, or wall immediately abutting on a public sidewalk; or upon the floor of any theater, shop, store, office building or other building used in common by the public; or upon the floor or stairway of any depot or station or public waiting room; or upon any floor, stairway, entranceway, office, lobby, foyer or patio used in common by the public; provided further that no violation of this section shall occur if the owner of the offending animal promptly and voluntarily removes the dog waste.
C. Deprivation Of Sustenance Or Shelter: It shall be unlawful to deprive any animal of necessary sustenance, food, drink, or shelter, or expose to the elements of the weather and to the extreme of heat or cold, or refuse to obtain veterinarian medical care for illness, injury, disease or infirmity, or wilfully instigate, engage in, or in any way further an act of cruelty to any animal, or any act to produce such cruelty.
D. Abandoning Animals: It is unlawful for any person owning, possessing or having the care, custody, and control of any animal, living or dead, to abandon the same in a public street, road, alley or any other public place, or upon his or her property or the property of another. An animal is considered abandoned when not claimed on or by a specified date after having been boarded, groomed, trained, handled or cared for by any person or veterinarian. Any animal impounded pursuant to this section must be held by animal services for a period of five (5) days unless otherwise provided for.
E. Uncared For Animals: Whenever the animal services officers find that any animal is, or will be, without proper care, the animal services officers may take up such animal for protective care; and in the event of sickness or injury of the animal, where the owner or keeper is unknown, the animal services officers may after a reasonable time take any action to prevent further undue pain and suffering, including immediate destruction of the animal in humane manner.
F. Poisoning Animals: It shall be unlawful for any person unjustifiably to administer any poisonous drug or substance with intent that the same shall be taken by an animal, whether such animal be the property of himself or another, or whether said drug or substance be exposed upon such person's property, the private property of another, or any public place; provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to prevent or restrict the animal services officers, or health officer in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties as set forth.
G. Endangering Animals: It shall be unlawful for any person to wilfully throw, drop or place, or cause to be thrown, dropped or placed upon any road, highway, street, alley or public place, or upon the private property of himself or another, any glass, nails, pieces of metal or other substance or device calculated to wound, disable or injure any animal.
H. Transporting Or Enclosing Animals In Vehicles: It shall be unlawful for any person to carry or enclose, or cause to be carried or enclosed, in or upon any vehicle or conveyance, any animal in a cruel or inhumane manner.
I. Confining Animals In Motor Vehicles: No person having charge or custody of an animal, as owner or otherwise, shall place or confine such animal or allow such animal to be placed or confined or to remain in a motor vehicle under such conditions or for such period of time as may endanger the health or well being of such animal due to heat, cold, lack of food or such other circumstances as may reasonably be expected to cause suffering, disability or death.
1. Authority Of Officer: An officer of the Lyon County sheriff's department, or the animal services department, or any animal services officer who finds an animal in a motor vehicle in violation of this chapter may break and enter the motor vehicle, if necessary, to remove the animal. The officer removing the animal shall take the animal to the animal services department or to a veterinarian clinic for safekeeping and shall, in the event the person having custody of the animal cannot be contacted, leave in a prominent place in the motor vehicle a written notice bearing his name and office and the address where the animal may be claimed by the owner thereof. The animal will be surrendered to the owner if the owner claims the animal within seven (7) days from the time the animal was removed from the vehicle and pays all reasonable charges that have accrued for the maintenance of the animal. If the owner fails to claim the animal within seven (7) days after its removal from the motor vehicle, the animal services department will make reasonable efforts to contact the owner and give notice where the animal is in custody and that the owner upon payment of the reasonable maintenance charges may reclaim it. In the event the owner cannot be contacted, or expresses no interest in reclaiming the animal within seven (7) days after contact or efforts to contact, the animal services department may dispose of the animal in any reasonably humane manner.
J. Running At Large Prohibited: It is unlawful for any person who owns, harbors or keeps or who has possession, charge, custody, or control of any dog to cause, permit, suffer or allow the dog to stray, run, or to be at large, in or on any public highway, street, alley, sidewalk, park, place or school ground, or upon any lot or land whether public or private, other than that of the owner.
This section does not apply to any dog performing under the immediate direction and control of the person responsible for the dog or an agent or employee of that person.
The county officer may tranquilize a dog at large to aid in its capture. If safe capture cannot be made using tranquilization, the county officer may use any reasonable means necessary, including destruction of the animal, to capture the animal.
K. Breeding Wolves And Wolf Hybrids: It is unlawful to breed wolves or wolf hybrids for sale or profit within the unincorporated area of the county, except as otherwise provided in chapter 7 of this title.
L. Feeding And Watering Big Game Animals, Estray And Wild Horses: It is unlawful for a person to feed and/or water any big game animal, estray horse or wild horse within one thousand five hundred feet (1,500') of the highway right of way of U.S. Highways 50, 95, 95A, 208, 341, 342 and 339 unless the area is securely fenced to prevent the animals from wandering into the highway right of way.
M. Fighting: It is unlawful for any person to own, keep, or use, or be in any manner connected with or financially interested in the management of, or to receive money or other thing of value for the admission of any person to, a property, house, apartment, condominium, pit, or place procured or permitted to be used or occupied for baiting or fighting of animals; or to instigate, promote, arrange, or carry on a fight between animals, or do any act as assistant, umpire, principal, spectator or otherwise in a fight between animals, or in aid of or calculated to encourage or further any fight between animals.
N. Injury And Overwork: It is unlawful for any person to overdrive, overload, torture or cruelly beat, or unjustifiably injure, maim, mutilate, or kill any animal whether belonging to himself or to another, and whether on or off the premises of the owner of the animal.
O. Enclosures And Restraints: It is unlawful to confine or overcrowd an animal in any cage, coop, crate, box or any enclosure in a cruel or inhumane manner, or so as to produce torture. It shall further be unlawful to restrict any animal by leash, cord, or chain of a length which causes cruelty or torture to the animal.
P. Cruel And Unusual Uses: It is unlawful for any owner, operator, or agent of any rodeo, rodeo event of any type irrespective of its name, carnival, fair, or amusement park to use any live animal as or for a target or in any cruel or unusual manner.
Q. Horse Tripping: It is unlawful for any person to intentionally trip or fell any equine animal by the legs or by any means whatsoever for the purpose of entertainment or sport. (Ord. 516, 2-7-2008)