The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall have the following duties and authority.
(A) The Chief Animal Control Officer is authorized to investigate any complaints of violations of this chapter or state laws regarding animals.
(B) The Chief Animal Control Officer may promptly seize, take up and place in the Animal Shelter, or contracted services provider, including a state-licensed humane society, animals being kept or harbored or found running at large any place within Downriver Central Animal Control Agency contrary to the provisions of this chapter or the statutes of the state.
(C) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall be properly certified with the state as required in Public Act 339, § 29b, of 1919, being M.C.L.A. § 287.289b, as amended (the Dog Law). They shall have the legal authority and duty to issue appearance tickets, citations or summonses to those persons acting contrary to the provisions of this chapter or state laws relating to animals.
(D) The Chief Animal Control Officer or a duly recognized service provider under contract with Downriver Central Animal Control Agency may, under the guidelines for holding periods and notification set forth in state statutes, dispose of impounded animals which are not claimed by the legal owner, by one of the following methods:
(1) Adoption by an individual person who meets adoption criteria for the animal;
(2) Humane euthanasia under M.C.L.A. § 287.279(a); or
(3) Release to a duly recognized service provider to Downriver Central Animal Control Agency, such as a licensed humane society, animal protection shelter or an approved 503-C Rescue group. Note: the state guidelines for holding periods do not apply to animals that are sick or injured to the extent that the holding period would cause the animal to suffer. This section also does not apply to any animal that is voluntarily signed over to the animal control shelter by its owner. In both of these cases no minimum holding period is required before disposing of the animal.
(E) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall maintain a record of when the animal was acquired, under what circumstances, copies of any required notices and the disposition of the animal. Regulations regarding the adoption of animals and boarding and other charges shall be posted in a conspicuous place at the animal control shelter.
(F) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall dispose of the bodies of all animals destroyed at the animal control shelter or elsewhere in Downriver Central Animal Control Agency in a manner approved by the state.
(G) (1) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall promptly investigate all animal bite cases involving human injury and shall search out and attempt to discover the animal involved. If the Chief Animal Control Officer finds the animal responsible for the bite, he or she shall quarantine the animal for examination for disease in accordance with the applicable provisions of this chapter and the statutes of the state.
(2) The Chief Animal Control Officer shall also seize and impound any rabies-suspected animal and cause the animal to be quarantined for examination.
(H) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall make efforts to locate and determine the number of all unlicensed dogs (or other animals required to be licensed) in the Downriver Central Animal Control Agency.
(I) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall have the duty to inspect any kennel, a license for which has been issued, and shall have the duty to suspend the license if conditions exist which are unhealthy or inhumane to the animals kept in the kennel, pending correction of such conditions; and, further, shall have the duty to revoke the license if such conditions are not corrected within a reasonable period of time.
(J) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall have the duty to investigate complaints of animals alleged to be treated cruelly or kept in violation of this chapter, and may seek a court order to seize, take up and impound any animal that has been subject to such cruelty, abandonment or neglect.
(K) The Chief Animal Control Officer and his or her designees shall have such other duties relating to the enforcement of this chapter as the Police Chief may from time to time provide.
(Prior Code, § 4-4) (Ord. 1370, passed 9-17-2012)