(A) General.
(1) The owner of any domesticated companion animal that bites a person or other animal shall immediately quarantine the biting animal for a minimum of ten days at the Downriver Central Animal Shelter or may be approved for home quarantine which is at the sole discretion of the Animal Control Officer.
(2) If the owner of the biting animal fails to surrender the animal, or if the owner of the biting animal cannot be identified or found, then the Chief Animal Control Officer may take possession of the domesticated companion animal and quarantine it at the animal control shelter or animal protection shelter until the expiration of the ten-day period. The owner shall be responsible for all expenses incurred for the quarantine.
(3) At the expiration of the ten-day period, if the owner shows satisfactory evidence that the domesticated companion animal is not suffering from rabies, and pays the requisite expenses, the Chief Animal Control Officer shall release the domesticated companion animal to its owner. Any violation of the home quarantine agreement or failure to bring the animal to the Animal Shelter or veterinarian in the required time is in violation of this chapter.
(4) The Chief Animal Control Officer may immediately humanely destroy the domesticated companion animal that has bitten if the animal is determined by a veterinarian to be suffering from rabies or upon request of the owner.
(5) In such cases, following the humane destruction of the domesticated companion animal, the Chief Animal Control Officer shall immediately send a sample specimen to the state’s Department of Public Virology Laboratory in Lansing, Michigan.
(B) Animals that are not domesticated. If an animal that is not domesticated bites a person or other animal, and there is no identifiable owner, then the Chief Animal Control Officer shall if possible, humanely confine for quarantine and/or destroy the animal and immediately send the animal or sample specimen to the state’s Department of Public Health Virology Laboratory in Lansing, Michigan.
(Prior Code, § 4-4) (Ord. 1370, passed 9-17-2012) Penalty, see § 90.999