(a) Any person keeping or harboring within the limits of the town one or more dogs which by prolonged and habitual barking, howling or whining cause a disturbance to neighboring residents, or cause destruction or damage to another’s property, and thereby hinder or interfere with the reasonable use and/or enjoyment of the property of neighboring residents shall be construed to be maintaining a nuisance.
(b) No owner of any female dog in heat shall keep the same within the town during such period, except when securely confined to the premises of the owner or other person with such person’s consent, and to allow a female dog in heat to run at large shall make the owner guilty of maintaining a nuisance.
(c) Any person keeping within the boundaries of the town, one or more dogs, and who fails to maintain his or her premises or enclosure in a sanitary condition and thereby creates obnoxious odors or serious annoyance to the neighboring residents shall be guilty of maintaining a nuisance.
(d) Upon filing of a signed complaint by a resident with the nuisance described by the complainant, the Animal Control Officer shall investigate the complaint. If through investigation these complaints are substantiated, he or she shall request that the nuisance be corrected within a 24-hour period. The Animal Control Officer will make a return visit to determine whether the initial cause for complaint has been corrected and may then institute proper legal procedures if the nuisance has not been abated.
(e) Any owner of a dog, or any person harboring a dog, found violating any provisions of this section shall be guilty of maintaining a nuisance, which constitutes a misdemeanor punishable in accordance with § 1-5.
(f) It shall be unlawful for any person to cause or permit a dog under his or her ownership or control to be on any property, public or private, not owned by such person, unless such person shall have in his or her possession a device for the removal of any excrement which might be deposited by such animal. Any person who owns or controls a dog which deposits excrement upon any property, public or private, shall promptly remove such excrement to a proper receptacle located on property owned or possessed by such person.
(Ord. passed 11-4-1999) Penalty, see § 1-5