A. It is unlawful and punishable as a misdemeanor for any person to mistreat any animal as follows:
1. No owner shall fail to provide his animals with sufficient good and wholesome food and water, proper and sanitary shelter and protection from the weather, veterinary care when needed to prevent suffering, and with humane care and treatment;
2. No person shall beat, cruelly ill treat, torment, overload, overwork or otherwise abuse an animal or cause, instigate or permit any dogfight, cockfight, bullfight or other combat between animals or between animals and humans;
3. No owner of an animal shall abandon such animal;
4. Any cosmetic surgery on an animal must be done by a licensed veterinarian with recovery supervised by the veterinarian;
5. No person shall give away any live animal as a prize for or as an inducement to enter any contest, game or other competition, or as an inducement to enter a place of amusement; or offer such animal as an incentive to enter into any business agreement whereby the offer was for the purpose of attracting trade without the written permission of the county commissioners;
6. Any person who, as the operator of a motor vehicle, strikes a domestic animal, shall stop at once, render such assistance as may be possible, and shall immediately report such injury or death to the animal's owner; in the event that the owner cannot be ascertained or located, the operator shall at once report the accident to the county sheriff's office;
7. No person shall expose any know poisonous substance, whether mixed with food or not, so that the same shall be liable to be eaten by any animal, provided that it shall not be unlawful for a person to expose on his own property common rat poison mixed only with vegetable substance; or
8. No person shall kill any animal in any way except in a humane manner.
B. The county animal control officer is authorized and directed to take up and impound any animal kept or found on private property if such animal has been observed by the animal control officer to be mistreated in violation of this section. The officer should exercise caution in entering private property in a way which may cause damage or destruction to property or bodily harm. If the owner, by some act, bars the officer's way onto the premises, the officer should retire from the scene. The animal control officer shall leave written notice of impoundment in the premises from which an animal is taken. (MC Ord. 102A § 2, 1986)