(1/10) January’s Town Council meeting brought to light that the Town’s animal control code is missing a definitive limit to how many domestic animals a person may own within Town limits.
The discussion was sparked by a complaint from a resident who was concerned about how many animals—in this case 12 dogs—a neighbor had on their property.
Commissioner Gary Baker wondered if a sound complaint was the initial issue, as just having 12 dogs does not make them a nuisance, he said; however, 12 loudly barking dogs does. "I think we need to address the nuisance not the quantity of animals." Walkersville does have a noise ordinance in their code, but it is not specific to the animal chapter, and thus not enforceable.
Town Manager Sean Williams told the Council that Walkersville follows the 'Animals and Fowl’ chapter of Frederick County’s Code of Ordinances which does not quantify a limit on how many domestic animals one may have on a property. Because of this, Walkersville does not limit the number of domestic animals that can be in a home. The Frederick County Code, however, does address the requirement to license all animals and the prohibition against barking dogs.
"So, what do you want to do?" asked Williams. "There is a gap in what can be enforced and how it can be enforced." He explained that if there is an animal control issue in Town, they do not have enough staff to deal with it, so they call the County’s Animal Control. The incident in question required Frederick County’s Animal Control Division to be called out to address the situation.
Williams encouraged the Council to also clarify the definition of a domestic animal whether that would or would not include animals other than dogs and cats such as chickens, ducks etc.
A resident present at the meeting asked the Council to consider including leash laws when the code is being modified.
Burgess Chad Weddle suggested the next step would be to contact the Town’s lawyer for their recommendation on how to continue the process of making changes to the code. "We can still use Frederick County’s standards, but it will at least be written down in our Code," he said.
Weddle suggested contacting neighboring Towns such as Thurmont and Middletown to see what they have in their code regarding domestic animal ownership to save the Council from "reinventing the wheel."
The Council concurred with Weddle’s suggestions and directed Williams to talk to the lawyer and neighboring municipalities to develop a recommend path forward he can present at the next Council meeting.
Read other news articles on Walkersville
