A. Threats to public health and safety. Animal Control Officers of the City shall make a reasonable effort to take into custody and impound in the City animal shelter any animal where the officer determines in good faith from personal observation or other evidence that the animal is an immediate threat to the public health and safety and such animal is upon the public street or lands and unleashed. Any law enforcement officer of the City shall take into custody and impound in the City animal shelter any unleashed animal which is upon public property upon the determination by such officer that the animal is an immediate threat to the public health and safety and that delay of impoundment to await an animal control unit will jeopardize the public safety. No costs for impoundment in the City animal shelter shall be assessed against the owner of the animal for the period during which the animal is impounded, if such animal is determined not to be a vicious animal under the provisions of this section.
B. Leashed or confined animals. Animals restrained by leashes while upon the public streets, ways, or property and animals confined to an owner's premises by fences or direct restraint shall not be impounded except by order issued by a Municipal Judge upon a showing of probable cause that such animal has, while unleashed and off the premises of its owner, bitten a human being or a domestic animal without provocation.
C. Providing information to requesting officer. Any person in custody of a leashed animal while upon the public street, ways, or property shall, upon request of an Animal Control Officer, furnish his name, address, telephone number, and registration number of the leashed animal to the requesting officer. No officer shall make any such request of a person unless the officer has determined that there is a reasonable suspicion that the animal in the custody of the person concerned is a "vicious animal" within the scope and intent of this article.
D. Determination of probable cause; delivery of vicious animal. A Municipal Judge, upon the presentment of a verified complaint by an Animal Control Officer or any law enforcement officer, shall determine whether probable cause exists to believe that at a specified location within the City a "vicious animal" is being kept. If the Municipal Judge determines that probable cause exists, the judge shall issue an order of the Municipal Court describing the animal with reasonable certainty, setting forth the approximate time, place, and actions giving rise to the alleged vicious nature of the animal, and specifying the address at which such animal is being kept. The judge shall direct the officer to serve a certified copy of the order upon a person age eighteen (18) or older who is a resident at the premises where such animal is located. Any such person, upon the service of the aforesaid certified copy of the court's order, shall be bound to deliver over to the law enforcement officer the animal which is the subject of the order. Any such impoundment order issued by a Municipal Judge may, in the alternative, authorize and direct the law enforcement officer to take into custody the subject animal from private premises by means not giving rise to a breach of the peace, in the event that such animal can be seized without entering into any domestic residence or commercial building and no person eighteen (18) or older is upon the premises where the subject animal is found. In the case of an impoundment accomplished without personal service of an impoundment order, a copy of the impoundment order shall be left on the premises in a manner calculated to be discovered by the occupant and sent to "occupant" by certified mail.
E. Retention of impounded animals. Animals impounded under the authority of this section shall be retained in the City animal shelter or, at the written request of the owner and at his sole liability for the costs, at a duly licensed veterinary clinic or kennel until the City Attorney declines to file an information in the case alleging a violation of this article or until a further order of the Municipal Court has been issued requiring release or destruction of the impounded animal.