The City of Lisbon will be reviewing their animal protection and control ordinance.
Lisbon council member Nathan Smith said he wants to review the ordinance to more clearly explain what a vicious animal would be.
The motion came after the council heard an appeal from pet owner Corey Greene for her pit bull, Tru.
Tru bit a tenant in her apartment complex Jan. 31, when he was chained outside to use the restroom and was possibly startled. There were no witnesses of the incident, aside from the individual bitten.
Greene explained she has lived in Lisbon for two decades, and in her current apartment for roughly three years. She has had Tru for several years, but her vaccination records for the dog were lost in a sudden move years ago and the veterinarian clinic she previously used to vaccinate her dog closed during COVID-19. She didn’t discover that until after the incident.
A crowd of community members attended the March 14 meeting to discuss the non-violent nature of Tru and Greene’s exemplary status as a responsible pet owner.
The council had previously labeled the dog as vicious at a Feb. 28 hearing, where Greene and Mount Vernon-Lisbon police chief Doug Shannon were both unable to attend in person. Shannon outlined the case as he knew it from the officer who originally investigated the incident via phone call at the hearing.
Tru was outside of Greene’s apartment on a chain that extended from her apartment onto a common walkway area used by people in the apartment complex.
The dog was relocated from Lisbon to a friend in a different community for the quarantine period, as well as to follow Lisbon’s ruling on the animal being labeled as vicious, for the possibly unprovoked biting.
Greene noted Tru is her registered emotional support animal, and that having the animal taken away from her has been detrimental to her emotional well being and feeling of safety.
For the council, the issue came down to if the dog could be labeled as vicious as spelled out in the code. The code denotes a vicious animal any that “D. Has bitten or clawed a person or persons and the attack was unprovoked, or any animal that has exhibited vicious tendencies in present or past conduct, including such that said animal has bitten or clawed a person or persons.”
Smith said he was sympathetic and a pet owner himself, but the issue for him as a council member, was in not following the city code, opening the city up for liabilities and setting a precedent for other instances.
City attorney Mark Parmventer said the issue for him was that the dog had bit someone within Lisbon city limits, which would clearly note the animal as vicious according to the code as it stands, and one that can’t be allowed in town.
Mount Vernon resident Emily Simmons said that dogs are sometimes startled, and their reactions are not necessarily that of their true self when they are startled, surprised or otherwise confronted by someone not reading their body language to back off.
“Pets can have accidents, much like we as humans can have accidents where we back into someone in a parking lot when driving,” Simmons said. “Corey is an incredible person and responsible dog owner providing an excellent home to her pet, and she is likely to keep a situation like this from happening again in the future.”
Greene said she had moved the tether to not impact the common walkway in the future and would make sure Tru’s vaccinations were up to date if he were allowed to return to the community.
Lisbon resident Travis Allen said that, while Tru was restrained, the City of Lisbon has a number of other incidents involving dogs running at large that needs to be addressed as well. A number of times he has been walking his dog when another animal has come running at them that isn’t on leash.
“Many of the owners note the dog is not vicious, but my dog doesn’t know that,” Allen said. “He just knows a large dog is barreling at him and his owner.”
Allen was also asking the council to review the ordinance to help animals have more of a voice in these incidents.
Parmventer said the council needs to avoid capriciously following the ordinance they have in the books to allow this dog to remain in town, as that opens them to possibly setting a precedent moving forward.
Smith said he wants to review Lisbon’s ordinance compared to the ordinances of other communities at the March 28 council meeting.
The council’s previous Feb. 28 ruling on Tru being a vicious animal still stands, but the council’s investigation of their animal ordinance at March 28’s meeting could change that.