SALISBURY, Md.- For the past few months, Wicomico County Council members have been fielding concerns from citizens about man's best friend – specifically when it comes to the necessities, like food, water and shelter. Those concerns were enough to prompt the council to take a look at its dog ordinance and talk about making changes at Tuesday's meeting.
"This is a picture of the dog that is in the middle of a field on a crate and it's 102 degrees at this time," explained Sally Jones, while showing pictures taken at a home on Scott Lane in Fruitland. "There were no water bowls and no food bowls. And I called the Humane Society and they said the people were compliant."
Based on current county code, the owners of the dog were not deemed to be doing anything wrong. But the council could not ignore the multiple complaints from concerned citizens, like Jones.
"I came to the county council and I presented to them their rules, where it said the dog had to be protected from the weather and all," she said.
People like Jones don't think a travel crate, like the one provided to the dog on Scott Lane, is good enough.
"They had that real heavy, heavy rain, and this is a picture of the crate and its got so much water in it that the dog is laying in front of it," she noted, pointing out another photograph.
"When there's concern from citizens, we like to take a look at it," remarked Council President Joe Holloway.
Holloway said that is why the council is re-visiting its code and trying to make changes. Among them; clarifying the "adequate water" requirement, possibly to say the animal must have access to water at all times. Changes may also include better defining what constitutes "shelter."
"It's important to the citizens," Holloway said. "The citizens like to see animals treated well, and we do, too, as county council, we have to be careful of the laws we create, to make sure they are enforceable."
The council will be presented a write-up of the dog ordinance, with proposed changes, within the next couple of weeks.
The issue will then go to a public hearing in Wicomico County.
