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Girard mayor slated to sign animal ordinance into law
By Sarah Lehr
GIRARD
Mayor James Melfi is slated to sign an animal ordinance into law that would include restrictions against tethering.
After several months of lobbying from animal-rights activists, council voted March 15 for final passage of a tethering amendment to the city’s ordinance on “animals and fowl.”
The amendment forbids housing, sheltering or tethering animals at a vacant home, during extreme hot or cold weather or when a severe-weather warning has been issued.
It also prohibits using a tie-out less than 12 feet long or one that could inflict strangulation or “unnecessary discomfort” on an animal.
Upon first offense, violation of the “house/shelter/tether animals” section of the ordinance is punishable as a minor misdemeanor. The second offense is a fourth-degree misdemeanor. The third offense, or any time an animal becomes sick or injured as a result of the violation, is a first-degree misdemeanor.
At a subsequent meeting March 28, however, Melfi announced he was holding off on signing the changes into law because, upon reviewing the entire ordinance, he felt an additional amendment should be added.
Melfi asked council to revise a section of the ordinance, which had been on the books since 1960, prohibiting “edible farm animal, horses and ponies” in residential areas. Melfi said he felt farm animals should be prohibited throughout the city and not just in areas zoned as residential.
Council added an amendment Monday at Melfi’s request and passed that amendment as an emergency. The ordinance now prohibits keeping “cattle, sheep, horses, mules, goats, pigs, hogs, poultry, ducks, geese or other waterfowl, wolves, wolf dogs, timber shepherds or wolf-mixed breeds” anywhere within city limits.