This chapter is authorized by § C-4B
of the Town Charter.
It shall be unlawful for any person who is the
owner or has the control of any such pet to permit the pet to be on
the beach located within the corporate limits of the Town of South
Bethany at any time from May 15 through October 15 of each year. This
subsection does not apply to pets on the property of their owners.
It shall be unlawful for any owner to permit a dog to run at
large anywhere within the corporate limits of the Town of South Bethany.
The owner of a pet shall be responsible for
the removal of and shall carry and use a bag or other device to pick
up and remove any excrement which their pet shall drop or leave on
property other than their own.
CAT, FERAL
Feral cats are cats unaccustomed to human interaction and
include any cat that has been born to a feral cat or a stray cat.
Feral cats are distinct from stray cats. Feral cats are usually too
fearful to be handled or adopted.
CAT, STRAY
A stray cat is a pet who has been lost or abandoned, who
is used to contact with people, and is tame enough to be adopted.
For purposes of this chapter, any cat found or imported into South
Bethany that does not have some means of identifying its owner (i.e.,
an embedded chip or a collar, or a tag) will be presumed to be stray,
unless its behavior fits the definition of "feral."
FEEDING
To give, place, expose, deposit, distribute or scatter any
edible material that will feed, attract, or entice wild mammals, feral
cats or stray cats.
OWNER
The person or persons with whom a pet resides, and/or who
are responsible for the regular care and feeding of an animal, including
stray cats who are being temporarily kept or maintained for the purpose
of adoption or placement.
PET
Any domesticated or tamed animal that is kept as a companion
and cared for affectionately. Pets shall include stray cats who are
being temporarily kept or maintained for the purpose of adoption or
placement.
RUN AT LARGE
For purposes of this chapter, to "run at large" means that
the dog or other pet is off the owner's property and is not under
control on a leash.
WILD MAMMAL
Any warm-blooded vertebrate animal of a class that is distinguished
by the possession of hair or fur, and that is not domesticated. This
includes any mammal which is not domesticated, including but not limited
to bears, coyotes, deer, feral cats, foxes, rodents, groundhogs, opossums,
raccoons, skunks, and the like.
It shall be unlawful for any person:
A. To own,
keep, harbor, possess, or maintain an animal(s) [a person is deemed
to keep or harbor an animal(s) if he or she provides food for that
animal] in an environment of unsanitary conditions or lack of cleanliness
which results in offensive odor, or is dangerous to the public health,
welfare or safety, or which increases the probability of transmission
of disease.
B. To maintain
property that is offensive, annoying or dangerous to the public health,
safety or welfare of the community because of the number, type, variety,
density, or location of the animals on the property.
C. To allow
or permit a pet to damage the property of anyone other than its owner,
including, but not limited to, turning over garbage containers or
damaging gardens, flowers, or vegetables, or defecating upon the property
of another.
D. To allow
or permit a pet to produce, or cause through their action, loud noise
in an excessive, continuous, or untimely fashion so as to interfere
with the reasonable use and enjoyment of neighboring premises.
E. It is prohibited
to keep a wild mammal within the corporate limits of the Town of South
Bethany.
Feeding wild mammals, feral cats, or stray cats anywhere in
the Town of South Bethany is prohibited. A person who provides or
makes food available will be deemed to violate this prohibition even
when the provider claims they did not intend the food to be consumed
by wild mammals, feral cats, or stray cats so long as a reasonable
person would have known that the food could be consumed at least in
part by wild mammals, feral cats or stray cats. The foregoing feeding
prohibition shall not apply to stray cats that are being kept or harbored
for the purposes of making them available for adoption and are confined
indoors at all times.
No person shall import or cause to be imported into the Town
of South Bethany any feral or stray cat. The foregoing importation
ban shall not apply to stray cats that are being imported for the
purpose of making them available for adoption and that will be confined
indoors at all times.
Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit the use of a trap, neuter,
and return (TNR) program by any person or group of persons to reduce
the Town’s population of stray or feral cats. Only cats trapped
in South Bethany may be returned to South Bethany as part of a TNR
program.
Any person found to have violated any provision of this chapter,
by any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be subject to a civil
penalty of $100 for the first offense, which penalty shall increase
by $100 for each subsequent violation, not to exceed $500, per continuing
violation, plus court costs. Each day of continued violation shall
be considered as a separate and subsequent offense.