It shall be the duty of the chief of police or any other police officer or employee of the city to apprehend and impound or cause to be impounded any dog found within the city limits and not duly licensed as provided herein or otherwise acting in any manner prohibited by this chapter.
(2004 Code, sec. 2.801)
(a) 
Impounded dogs or cats shall be kept for not less than three (3) days.
(b) 
If by a rabies vaccination tag or other means, the owner of an impounded animal can be identified, the animal control officer shall make every effort to notify the owner by telephone or mail.
(c) 
An owner reclaiming an impounded dog or cat shall pay a fee of twenty dollars ($20.00) plus the boarding charge for each day the animal has been impounded. The boarding fee shall be twenty dollars ($20.00) per day.
(d) 
Any animal not reclaimed by its owner within three (3) days shall become the property of the city, and shall be placed for adoption in a suitable home or humanely euthanized.
(e) 
The animal control authority shall review automatically the vaccination records of an animal against whom three (3) or more violations have been assessed in a twelve-month period.
(f) 
It shall be unlawful for any person in the city without proper authority, to break into, open, pull down the enclosure of, or make any opening into any pound or enclosure belonging to or used by the city for the purpose of impounding or keeping therein any animal or fowl, or to turn out or release any of the same from any pound or enclosure or cause to be done, or aid and abet in the doing of the same.
(g) 
Any animal dying of or killed while suffering from rabies, or suspected of suffering from rabies, shall be held for such disposition of the body and under such conditions, as the rabies control authority may prescribe.
(h) 
No unclaimed dog or cat shall be released for adoption without being sterilized, or without a written agreement from the adopter guaranteeing that such animal will be sterilized.
(i) 
If a person identified as the owner of an impounded animal no longer wants to own the animal, that person must sign a release of that animal to the city. If a person identified as the owner is unwilling to sign a release of the animal to the city, the animal will be declared abandoned.
(Ordinance 05-2018 adopted 7/12/18)
In addition to, or in lieu of, impounding an animal found at-large, the animal control officer, or police officer may issue to the known owner of such animal a notice of violation. Such notice shall impose upon the owner a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00). In the event that such penalty is not paid within the time period prescribed, a criminal warrant shall be initiated before the municipal judge and upon conviction of a violation of this article, the owner shall be punished as provided in this article.
(Ordinance 05-2018 adopted 7/12/18)