Toccoa Looks at Changes to Animal Control Ordinance

The city of Toccoa is looking at changes to its animal control ordinance.

Monday, Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter Director Jeff Roberts brought forward proposed changes for the city commission to consider.

Toccoa City Commissioner Jeanette Jamieson serves on the shelter board.

She said one of the changes has to do with bringing the city’s code regarding rabies vaccination requirements in line with state law.

“We have a requirement and ours says dogs, but it does not say anything about cats,” said Jamieson. “We have more cats in and out of that shelter than we do dogs.”

Other changes include giving animal control the ability to impound not just dogs, but cats in the city if they become a nuisance and adding that language that would allow animal control to cite an owner of an animal in the city if that animal is deemed to be a nuisance.

The fourth change deals with the selling of animals.

Under the proposed change, a pet dealer could not be on any property in the city but their own without the express written permission of the property owner.

Furthermore, city officials said the new language would require that pet dealer, if they were on someone’s else property in the city with permission, to have both a city business license and a license from the state Department of Agriculture.

Roberts said that would hopefully help with concerns about people sitting out with animals all day in parking lots where the animals do not have easy access to food or water.

“If the city passes the language that we are looking at or some semblance of it, then the Department of Agriculture really requires those people to be licensed also,” said Roberts. “That will help because if the Ag Department has a license, then they are required to provide certain care, required to get animals spay/neutered. It brings another oversight.”

Roberts said that they are not doing this to target private sales of animals.

“It is not designed for the person that has one litter that is trying to get rid of some,” said Roberts. “I have been out there myself and offered to take the puppies into the shelter. It is designed for the people that really have their little backyard business who are out there trying to sell them.”

Toccoa City Commissioners passed the first reading of the ordinance changes unanimously.