No person keeping, owning or having possession, charge, custody
or control of any dog shall cause, permit, suffer or allow the dog
to stray, run, be or go in any manner at large in or upon any public
street, way, sidewalk, school yard or grounds, park, or private property
of others without the express consent of the owner of such private
property, except such dog that may be under control by means of a
chain or leash, not longer than six feet in length.
Any dog found to be at large in violation of this bylaw shall
be caught and confined by the dog officer, who shall notify forthwith
the licensed owner or keeper of said dog. The owner or keeper of said
dog shall have ten days from receipt of notice thereof to reclaim
said dog from the dog officer. Return of the dog to the licensed owner
or keeper shall be dependent on admission of ownership or the keeping
of the dog, the assumption of responsibility thereof, and the payment
of any fee or charges due for such confinement as provided by this
bylaw.
The owner or keeper of any dog so confined by the dog officer,
under the provisions of this bylaw, shall be responsible for a fee
of ten dollars ($10.00)[1] per day for each day of confinement, for the costs of
such care and maintenance of such dog. Any fees so collected shall
be turned over to the town.
[1]
Art 7 of the 1990 Fall Town Meeting changed confinement fee
in Section 3 from $2 to $10 and changed the language of Section 5
to the language shown.
Any dog under confinement of the dog officer that shall not
have been claimed by the owner or keeper at the end of the said ten
day period shall be transferred or sold to the care and control of
the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
or some other similar organization or person offering to pay all charges
for confinement. In no case shall a dog be sold or delivered or given
to any person or organization intending to use said dog for vivisection
purposes.
No person or organization shall own or keep in this town any
dog, after six (6) months of age, which does not have a current vaccination
against rabies.
No person or organization shall own or keep in this town any
dog that bites, or by barking, howling, or in any other manner disturbs
the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or endangers the safety of
any person. No person or organization shall own or keep any unspayed
female dog in season when not confined in an adequate enclosure ,
as determined by the dog officer, on the property or housed in a veterinarian
hospital or registered kennel. It shall be the duty of the dog officer
to apprehend any such dog and to impound such dog in a suitable place,
or to order the owner thereof to restrain such dog. Any dog so impounded
may be reclaimed or disposed of as provided in Section 3 or 4.
The annual fee for a dog license shall be twenty dollars ($20.00)
for a female or male dog unless a certificate of a registered veterinarian
who performed the operation certified that such dog has been spayed
or neutered, in which case the fee shall be fifteen ($15.00). A certified
copy of such certificate on file in the office of any town clerk within
the commonwealth may be accepted as evidence that such operation has
been performed. If the town clerk is satisfied that a certificate
of the veterinarian who spayed or neutered the dog cannot be obtained,
he may accept in lieu thereof a statement signed under the penalties
of perjury by a registered veterinarian doing business in this commonwealth
stating that he has examined said dog and that it appears, in his
opinion, to have been spayed or neutered or a receipt of a bill from
the veterinarian who performed the operation that spayed or neutered
said dog. No fee shall be charged for a license for a dog specially
trained and currently utilized to lead or serve a person with special
needs. April 15th is established as the deadline date for procurement
of a dog license. After that date, a penalty charge of ten dollars
($10.00) will be added to the license fee.
No kennel license shall be issued in the town and no person
or household shall keep more than three (3) dogs over the age of three
(3) months. This provision shall not apply to the dog officer, who
may keep dogs in accordance with his duties.
The provisions of this bylaw shall not apply to any person or
organization who owns, keeps or maintains any dog as a part of a canine
corps for the commonwealth or any of its political subdivisions while
actually engaged in the performance of official duties.
The dog officer or, if none, the police department of the town
shall prosecute any violations of this bylaw.
A violation of this bylaw shall be punished by a fine of forty
dollars $40.00 for the first offense, fifty dollars $50.00 for the
second offense, and sixty dollar $60.00 for the third or subsequent
offense during any one calendar year.
[1]
Art 21 of the 2007 Fall Town Meeting Changing the Penalties.
