For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them:
(a) "Abandoned Cat" means a domesticated cat that an owner has forsaken entirely or neglected or refused to provide care and support.
(b) "Animal" means all non-human vertebrate and invertebrate species whether wild or domestic including but not limited to dogs, cats, cattle, horses, swine, sheep, geese, ducks, goats, turkeys, chickens or other fowl.
(c) "Animal Welfare Organization" means any charitable corporation whose purpose includes promotion of animal welfare and that has been granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service and which has registered with the City to operate within its boundaries.
(d) "Ear-tipping" means straight-line cutting of the tip of the left ear of a cat while the cat is anesthetized when done to evidence that the cat has been sterilized and vaccinated.
(e) "Feral cat" shall mean a member of the felis catus genus species that does not reside in a human occupied dwelling and that has never been tamed and socialized to humans.
(f) "Feral Cat Colony" means a group of cats that congregates, more or less, together as a unit. Although not every cat in a Colony may be feral, any non-feral cats that congregate with a colony shall be deemed to be a part of it.
(g) "Feral Cat Colony Caretaker" means any person who takes responsibility for the care and management of a City registered feral cat colony.
(h) "Harbor" includes both active and/or passive conduct.
(i) "Menacing fashion" means that an animal would cause any person being chased or approached to reasonably believe that the animal will cause physical injury to that person.
(j) "Nuisance Animal" means an animal that without provocation and while off the premises of its owner, keeper or harborer has chased or approached a person in either a menacing fashion or an apparent attitude of attack or has attempted to bite or otherwise endanger any person, but does not include a police dog that while being used to assist one or more law enforcement officers in the performance of their official duties has chased or approached a person in either a menacing fashion or an apparent attitude of attack or has attempted to bite or otherwise endanger any person.
(k) "Nuisance Health Risk Animals" shall mean rats, raccoons, skunks, Canada geese, and deer, and feral cats.
(l) "Owner" means and includes any person or firm having a right of property in an animal, any person or firm who keeps or harbors an animal or has it in his care, or who acts as its custodian and any person or firm who permits the animal to remain at or about any premises owned or occupied by said person or firm.
(m) "Permitted Hunter" means any person who has been authorized to hunt deer by the City of Mentor pursuant to a deer damage control permit issued by the State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources, or any person who has registered with the City of Mentor, has successfully completed the requirements of Section 505.12 and has been issued a valid deer hunting permit by the Chief of Police.
(n) "Physical injury" means any of the following:
(1) Any injury, illness, or other physiological impairment, regardless of its gravity or duration;
(2) Any tangible or intangible damage to property that, in any degree, results in loss to its value or interferes with its use or enjoyment.
(o) "Police dog" means a dog that has been trained, and may be used, to assist one or more law enforcement officers in the performance of their official duties.
(p) "Registration" means annual completion of a form provided by the City that documents the 501(c)(3) status of an Animal Welfare Organization, that identifies the officers with their contact information, and that specifies the elements of its Trap Neuter and Return ("TNR") program and how the program will be conducted within the City boundaries.
(q) "Running at large" means an animal satisfying any of the criteria set forth in 505.02(a) or (b).
(r) "Serious injury" means any of the following:
(1) Any physical harm that carries a substantial risk of death;
(2) Any physical harm that involves a permanent incapacity, whether partial or total, or temporary, substantial incapacity;
(3) Any physical harm that involves a permanent disfigurement or a temporary, serious disfigurement;
(4) Any physical harm that involves acute pain of a duration that results in substantial suffering or any degree of prolonged or intractable pain.
(s) "Stray Cat" means a cat that is regularly off the property of the owner, is not under the physical control and restraint of the owner, and is not regularly provided with food by its owner.
(t) "Tether" means a rope, chain, cord, dog run or pulley, or similar restraint for holding an animal in place, allowing a radius in which it can move about.
(u) "TNR" means Trap, Neuter and Return.
(v) "TNR Program" means a program pursuant to which feral and stray cats are trapped, neutered or spayed, vaccinated against rabies, and returned to the location where they congregate, in accordance with this chapter.
(x) "Wild or exotic animal" means any cat other than felis catus; non-human primates other than monkeys; or other canine other than canis familiaris; poisonous reptile, alligator, crocodile or lizard over two feet long; snake over six feet long; bear, kangaroo, eagle; poisonous stinging insect or arachnid.
(y) "Without provocation" means that the animal was not teased, tormented or abused by a person, or that the animal was not coming to the aid of defense of a person who was not engaged in illegal or criminal activity and who was not using the animal as a means of carrying out such activity.
(Ord. 13-O-09. Passed 1-15-13; Ord. 13-O-09. Passed 1-15-13; Ord. 15-O-49. Passed 6-2-15; Ord. 13-O-58. Passed 7-2-13; Ord. 17-O-21. Passed 3-7-17; Ord. 23-O-077. Passed 10-17-23.)