Summary: Agisters and persons keeping, yarding, feeding or pasturing domestic animals, shall have a lien upon the animals agistered, kept, yarded or fed, for the proper charges due for the agisting, keeping, yarding or feeding thereof.
Summary: Keepers of livery stables, and all others engaged in feeding horses, cattle, hogs, or other livestock, shall have a lien upon such property for the feed and care bestowed by them. If reasonable or stipulated charges for such feed and care are not paid within sixty (60) days after the charges become due, the property may be sold, provided, however, that any lien created by this act may be assigned.
Summary: Any person furnishing feed, pasture or otherwise boarding any animal(s), at the request or with the consent of the owner, has a lien upon the animal(s), and may retain possession thereof until the sum due for the feed, pasture or board has been paid. Before foreclosing the lien by sale, the person furnishing the feed, pasture or board shall mail a registered or certified letter to the owner of the animal(s), at the owner's last known address, demanding payment. Any person who takes and drives away any such animal(s), while in the possession of the person feeding, pasturing or boarding them, without the consent of that person, and without first having paid all reasonable charges due thereon, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Summary: This statute defines an animal shelter and describes a monthly report that each animal shelter must compile. Among other things, contents of the report include number of strays, adoptions, health-related issues, and costs incurred by the shelter. This report must be made available to the public, though a reasonable fee is appropriate. There is no cause of action created by this statute.
Summary: This statute describes specific circumstances under which the tethering of an unattended dog outdoors may create a rebuttable presumption that the dog has been neglected. A dog tethered for less than nine hours in a 24-hour period with potable water, an area of shade, a tether at least three times the length of the dog with a swivel anchor and a well-fitted collar is not presumed to be neglect, unless tethered for more than a half hour in temperatures above 90 degrees or below 32 degrees. The statute is effective as of August 2017.
Summary: This statutes provides that when a child is summoned in a criminal matter, a parent, counselor, friend, or a facility dog may stay in the courtroom during the child's testimony, unless the court finds that the defendant will be unduly prejudiced. When a child is summoned to witness in any non-criminal matter, a facility dog will be allowed to remain in courtroom during the child's testimony.
Summary: This statute describes the services a cemetery may provide and whether the cemetery may provide those services exclusively. It prohibits the commingling of cremated animal remains with human remains, but allows the entombment of the cremated remains of the decedent's pet with the authorization of a legally authorized person.
Summary: In this case, the Township brought action against property owners to enjoin the owners from possessing exotic animals on the property, operating an animal exhibition on the property, and operating a business pelting exotic animals on the property. The District Court invalidated the township's exotic animal ordinance as conflicting with state statute, determined that an animal exhibition was not a permissible use under the township's zoning ordinance, and permanently enjoined the owners from operating an animal exhibition and conducting any retail sales, except for horticultural products produced on the property. This court held that the exotic animals ordinance did not conflict with state statute nor was it preempted. Further, this court held that the property owners' grandfathered possession and exhibition of exotic animals was limited to one wolf; animal control officer exception to exotic animal possession was limited to temporary possession of exotic animals in conjunction with owner's work as an animal control officer; township was not estopped from enforcing its exotic animal ordinance; and interpreting zoning ordinance's language to require sale of horticultural products from the land itself was not inherently unreasonable. Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded; motion dismissed.
Summary: In this case, the plaintiffs appealed a Zoning Board that granted their neighbor a special permit allowing four dogs to be kept at Ms. Sullivan's home. The dogsâpedigreed Eurasiersâare Ms. Sullivan's personal pets and live with Ms. Sullivan inside her house, have someone with them at all times, and spend most of their time indoors. When they are outside, they are confined to a chain-link fenced-in area behind the house. The permit has some conditions that must be met for the dogs to remain on the property, one of which is the dogs not become a nuisance. The court affirmed the grant of the special permit based on the testimony and exhibits admitted at trial after assessing the credibility, weight, and appropriate inferences to be drawn from that evidence. The Board's decision granting the special permit was AFFIRMED.
Summary: The page includes a textual summary of the history of animal control in the Corporations of Washington, Georgetown, and the County of Washington, which became collectively known as the District of Columbia in 1871. A thorough collection of the chronology of animal control laws from 1791 to about 1940 is also attached. This includes a complete list of all laws related to animals for this period. As noted by the author, animal control tended evolve among two tracks: (1) farm animals estrays and procedures for boarding and/or returning them to their owners; and (2) dogs, which were more or less viewed as a health concerns and financial drains for local government. Enactment of anti-cruelty laws did not occur until the late nineteenth century.
