{"id":73785,"date":"2016-08-31T03:39:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T09:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-looks-to-draft-rules-to-limit-barking-dogs\/"},"modified":"2016-08-31T09:39:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T09:39:20","slug":"la-plata-county-looks-to-draft-rules-to-limit-barking-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-looks-to-draft-rules-to-limit-barking-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County looks to draft rules to limit barking dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cliff
Cliff Vancura\/Herald file<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Through lively and sometimes emotional discussion, rural La Plata County residents suggested regulatory solutions to one of the county\u2019s favorite subjects: barking dogs.<\/p>\n

At a Tuesday open house on the county\u2019s animal control and cruelty regulations, county staff members discussed new details for proposed revisions with a group of about 15 residents.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s animal control regulations were last updated in the 1990s. Under the proposed revisions, 20 minutes or more of continuous barking is grounds for a neighbor to lodge a signed complaint.<\/p>\n

Owners of unruly dogs would be subjected to fines for repeat offenses, provided the complaining neighbor can provide evidence.<\/p>\n

The first strike would result in a written warning, giving the dog owner 10 days to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, residents pointed out a few loopholes in the revisions.<\/p>\n

For one, the regulations do not have a provision for removal of a nuisance animal. Theoretically, a dog owner with deep pockets could continue to pay his way while his dog continues to plague the neighbors.<\/p>\n

A judge would hold the power to remove an animal from repeat offenders, county spokeswoman Megan Graham said.<\/p>\n

The meeting\u2019s attendees were also uncertain about the \u201c20 continuous minutes\u201d standard for reporting a dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should it be 20 continuous minutes?\u201d noted one citizen. \u201cA nuisance is a nuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guard dogs could possibly be exempt from the regulations, but that would require a registration fee of an undetermined amount with the La Plata County Humane Society.<\/p>\n

Vicious, or dangerous animals, as determined by a judge, would also require registration with the Humane Society, and the animal would be confined to a kennel, pen or a maximum 4-foot leash when outside its owner\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

County staff recorded the public\u2019s feedback, which will be considered as the ordinance is massaged before a final draft goes before the county commissioners.<\/p>\n

Proposed changes can be found at www.co.laplata.co.us<\/a>. Comments can be emailed to megan.graham@co.laplata.co.us<\/a> or submitted at www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/czjnxwx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

get 20 minutes to woof it up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,475],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-la-plata-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73785"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}