PORT ANGELES — A dog that has been declared potentially dangerous in Clallam County would be eligible to be taken off the list after two years of good behavior and a satisfactory case review under a proposed code amendment.
County Commissioners Mike Chapman and Mike Doherty voted Tuesday to table the proposal to re-examine the liability issues and to give Commissioner Steve Tharinger a chance to review the public testimony from a public hearing held that day.
Tharinger is working as both a county commissioner and a 24th District representative in the state House of Representatives. He was absent from the county meeting because he was attending to legislative duties in Olympia, Chapman said.
Tharinger announced last spring that he will not seek a fourth term on the county board when his term expires in December.
Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said the Clallam County Animal Issues Advisory Committee and Animal Control Deputy Tracey Kellas have worked on the proposal for more than a year.
The Animal Issues Advisory Board recommended the changes unanimously, Kellas said.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols has vetted the ordinance and approved it.
“What they’ve done is eliminated the ambiguities that previously existed between dangerous dogs and potentially dangerous dogs,” Peregrin said.
“A ‘potentially dangerous dog’ is casting a fairly wide net over an animal, for example, a 6-month-old Labrador puppy chasing chickens would receive a potentially dangerous dog classification,” he said.
The owner of a potentially dangerous dog must pay a $150 licensing fee and restrain the dog. Declassification would free the owner of the restraint requirement and the fee.
Under the current ordinance, the potentially dangerous label would last until the dog was too blind to see or too lame to walk, Peregrin said.
Provides flexibility
“What this regulation provides is some flexibility for changing circumstances simply because each and every one of these events has their own set of circumstances that need to be examined and a decision made by our animal control deputy with some flexibility to give the animal and the owner some relief if it really isn’t dangerous,” Peregrin said.
“It doesn’t actually remove the designation; it relaxes the restrictions. And that’s not going to be relaxed unless our animal control deputy is confident that that animal is not a dangerous anymore,” Peregrin added.
A dangerous dog is one that has inflicted severe injury on a person or domesticated animal.
The owner of a dangerous dog must keep the dog in an enclosed space, keep it muzzled, get liability insurance and pay the fee.
Failure to abide by the restrictions could result in the confiscation of the dog.
“It is a case-by-case assessment of what this dog has done,” Kellas said.
“It is not an automatic after 24 months these [potentially dangerous] dogs are declared inactive. They have to make a written appeal. We go over the case history.”
Opposes changes
Corby Somerville of East Clallam County told commissioners that the proposed ordinance should be rejected.
He said the licensing and restraint requirements in the existing ordinance are intended to control human behavior — not animal behavior — and require dog owners to provide adequate restraint for potentially dangerous animals.
“A 24-month period during which a potentially dangerous dog has had no violations only proves that the legally required restraint of a potentially dangerous dog has been effective in controlling the risk to others,” Somerville said.
“It does not prove that the dog is no longer dangerous, nor does it prove that the dog has had any change to its behavior or temperament,” Somerville said.
“The behavior of a potentially dangerous dog can be entirely unpredictable and be influenced by unpredictable situations or events.”
Somerville said the code should require the original complainant to be notified when the dog is declassified as potentially dangerous.
Somerville raised the same concerns in a May 31 public hearing on the same proposal.
Commissioners at that time sent the ordinance back to the Animal Issues Advisory Committee for review.
“I’m comfortable with the work that’s been done,” Chapman said.
“I think a number of issues were addressed since the last public hearing.”
Doherty, who took part in the meeting by speakerphone, said Tharinger should have a chance to weigh in before the board takes action.
The earliest that a decision will be made is Monday, Oct. 24.
The draft ordinance is available at www.clallam.net/bocc/drafts.html.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.