San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Thursday morning on harsher penalties for irresponsible dog owners.
Council members' approval was needed before the city can raise fines for repeat offenders or begin sterilizing dogs before they are returned to their owners.
The changes were prompted by a request from District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito, who also asked for a pseudonym program for residents to report dangerous dogs.
She said the higher fines are supposed to be a deterrent.
“If you know that, hey, your dog is going to get out and the second time it gets out, you’re going to pay $500, we hope that you would take the proactive steps to make sure your dog is fenced in and doesn’t want get out of your yard,” she said.
The City Council also drastically raised the fines for owners who fail to prevent their dogs from biting people.
Animal Care Services has handled 300 severe bite cases in the past year.
HIGHER FINES FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS
The city’s minimum recommended fines for ACS violations are currently $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second, and $300 for the third or more.
ACS Interim Director Mike Shannon says many of the violations are for loose dogs. Now, the fines for the second and third violations will be $500 and $750, respectively.
The fines for owners who fail to prevent their dogs from biting people will be skyrocket to a minimum of $1,000. A second violation will be $1,500, and a third or higher is $2,000.
FORCED STERILIZATIONS
Nearly two of every five loose dogs returned to their owners in the city’s last fiscal year were still unsterilized when they were handed over.
But even though their owners are ordered to get their pet spayed or neutered within 30 days, ACS has been lax about ensuring they actually did it.
In the past three years, ACS followed up on as few as 26% of its sterilization orders, though that jumped to 69% last year.
ACS will now begin sterilizing some dogs before they’re ever returned to their owners — specifically, the ones that are picked up from the ACS campus.
ACS has said it would take too much time for ACS officers to bring every loose dog back to the campus, though, and many loose dogs will still be returned directly to their nearby homes if officers can determine who their owner is.
However, Shannon said, “we absolutely have to ensure 100% issuance and follow-up of those sterilization orders now and in the future.”
Owners who don’t follow through on the sterilization order can be cited.
OTHER CHANGES
ACS has already begun accepting dangerous dog affidavits under a pseudonym, at least in the initial phase.
The affidavits are required under state law to start an investigation to mark a dog as “dangerous,” but ACS says some people hold off because of concerns about retaliation.
Under the city’s latest changes, they can file an affidavit under a different name - like “John Doe” - but their actual name must be revealed if the case goes to court.
State Sen. José Menéndez (D-San Antonio) wants to take it a step further and try to allow for a fully anonymous process by updating state law in the upcoming legislative session.
The department is already proactively inspecting “repeat offenders,” Shannon says.
See the Animal Care Services presentation below: