§ 5-37. Keeping stray animals; requirements, failure to surrender.

(a)

Dogs, cats and livestock. It shall be unlawful for any person in the county to knowingly and intentionally harbor, feed, keep in possession by confinement, or otherwise, any stray animal which does not belong to that person, unless that person has, within twenty-four (24) hours from the time such animal came into his/her possession, notified an animal control officer of his/her intentions to either surrender the stray animal to the animal control officer or advertise such stray animal in the local newspaper for three (3) consecutive days. If the individual holding the stray animal elects to advertise the animal in the local newspaper and the prior owner does not respond by the tenth day from the last day of publication of the notice, the individual who has advertised shall be deemed the legal owner. If the advertisement has not appeared within seventy-two (72) hours, the animal shall be surrendered to the animal control officer. It shall be unlawful for any person to refuse to surrender any such animal to the animal control officer upon demand.

(b)

Dangerous exotic animals. Any person finding or capturing an exotic or dangerous exotic animal shall immediately notify animal enforcement of the same, and shall surrender the exotic animal to the animal services director or his designee upon request.

(c)

Penalty. Failure to comply with the requirements in subsections (a) and (b) shall result in a fine of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each offense.

(d)

Registered feral feline colonies under the community cat program in section 5-112 shall be exempt from this section for the purposes herein.

(Ord. of 6-7-95, § VII; Ord. of 11-6-00, § VII; Ord. of 9-8-15; Amend. of 10-3-16; Amend. of 8-6-18)