[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Mineral 11-8-2004.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
No person shall pasture or graze or cause to be pastured or grazed or
otherwise permit to be on any right-of-way or any street in the Town, except
as herein otherwise provided, any livestock, unless such animal or animals
is or are securely tied or held by chain or rope so as to prevent such animal
from getting on the traveled portion of the street; provided, however, that
this section shall not apply when such livestock are being driven along such
road or right-of-way while under the control of a responsible drover or drovers.
A.
No dog shall run at large in the Town. Where any dog
is found running at large in the Town, the owner or custodian of the dog shall
be in violation of this section.
B.
For purposes of this section, a dog shall be deemed "running
at large" when off the property or premises of its owner or custodian and
not under the control of the owner or its custodian, or his agent, either
by leash, cord or chain.
C.
For purposes of this section, "property or premises of
its owner or custodian" shall not mean common areas of apartment complexes,
townhouse complexes and the like, which areas are held in common ownership
for all owners or tenants within the complex.
D.
The Animal Warden may take control of any dog found running
at large within the Town limits and hold such dog at the Louisa County Animal
Pound in accordance with the regulations for holding of all other such dogs
at said pound.
E.
For the first two violations of this section, no civil
or criminal penalty shall be imposed. An owner or custodian may retrieve any
such dog found running at large from the animal pound by complying with all
regulations for the retrieval of animals imposed by the animal pound, by paying
all impoundment fees, and by paying any and all other fees imposed by said
animal pound.
F.
For any third and subsequent violation of this section, there shall be imposed a civil penalty in the amount of $25 against said owner or custodian for each such violation, and the owner or custodian shall be required to comply with the provisions of Subsection E hereinabove.
G.
This section shall not apply to any person while engaged
in law enforcement or search-and-rescue activity or in a supervised, formal
obedience training class or show and during formally sanctioned field trials;
provided, however, that it shall be a violation of this section for the owner
or custodian of any such dog to place such dog or allow it to be placed in
the custody of any other person not physically capable of maintaining effective
control of such dog.
It shall be unlawful for any person who keeps or maintains any poultry,
fowl or livestock of any description within the Town to allow such poultry,
fowl or livestock to stray to public property or private premises of another,
and, further, all poultry, fowl and livestock shall be sufficiently housed
or fenced by the owner or person exercising control over such poultry, fowl
or livestock so as to prevent the same from trespassing or straying from the
premises of the owner or person exercising control thereover. The housing
and fencing of such fowl, poultry and livestock of every description shall
be kept in a clean and sanitary condition for the protection of health and
shall be so kept as not to give rise to objectionable odors upon any public
highway or street or upon any premises owned or occupied by any person other
than the person maintaining such fowl or livestock.
It shall be unlawful for any person to keep, raise or fatten any hog
or pig within the Town or within 300 yards thereof; provided, however, that
this section shall not be construed to apply to a person who brings hogs or
pigs into the Town for the purpose of market or sale and does not keep such
hogs or pigs within the Town for more than 24 hours.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person to:
(1)
Override, overdrive, overload, torture, ill treat, abandon,
willfully inflict inhumane injury or pain not connected with bona fide scientific
or medical experimentation to or cruelly or unnecessarily beat, maim, mutilate
or kill any animal, whether belonging to himself or another, or deprive any
animal of necessary sustenance, food, drink or shelter or cause any of the
above things or, being the owner of such animal, permit such acts to be done
by another;
(2)
Willfully set on foot, instigate, engage in or in any
way further any act of cruelty to any animal; or
(3)
Carry or cause to be carried in or upon any vehicle or
vessel or otherwise any animal in a cruel, brutal or inhumane manner, so as
to produce torture or unnecessary suffering, but nothing in this section shall
be construed to prohibit the dehorning of cattle.
B.
The word "animal" as used in this section shall be construed
to include birds, poultry and fowl.
No person shall have or keep any animal or fowl which, by making or
causing frequent or long-continued and unreasonable noise, shall disturb the
comfort and repose of any person in the vicinity. Upon complaint being made
to the Town office that the provisions of this section are being violated,
the Town may, after investigation, give notice of such complaint to the owner
or person in charge of such animal or fowl and order the discontinuance of
the disturbance. It shall be unlawful to fail to comply with such order.
It shall be unlawful for any person to cast any dead animal into a road
or to knowingly permit any dead animal to remain unburied upon his property
when offensive to the public or, having in custody any maimed, diseased, disabled
or infirmed animal, to leave it to die or be in a street, road or public place.
