HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 10/20/2020 - Memorandum From Marcy Yoder R: Agenda Item #10 - Animal Nuisance Code
Planning, Development & Transportation
Community Development & Neighborhood Services
281 N. College Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.416.2350
970.224.6134 FAX
www.fcgov.com
MEMORANDUM
DATE: October 15, 2020
TO: Mayor Troxell and City Council Members
THRU: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Kelly DiMartino, Deputy City Manager
Caryn Champine, PDT Director
Paul Sizemore, Interim CDNS Director
Carrie Daggett, City Attorney
FROM: Marcy Yoder, Neighborhood Services Manager
Bronwyn Scurlock, Assistant City Attorney
Rigo Neira, Director of Animal Protection & Control
RE: Agenda Item # 10 -- Animal Nuisance Code
Purpose
This memo will provide additional background on the options available to neighbors,
processes for animal disturbance complaints and citations, and prosecution processes
for animal disturbance citations as requested by Council on October 7 in connection
with consideration of Ordinance No. 119, 2020. That ordinance will come to Council for
consideration on second reading on the discussion calendar on October 20.
Resources Available for Animal Disturbance cases
Both Neighborhood Services and Larimer Humane Society have resources available to
neighbors to support conversations to address quality of life issues and information is
shared in a variety of ways.
Larimer Humane Society encourages neighbors to start with a conversation with the pet
owner. Below is an excerpt from the website:
Step 1: Communicate with the pet owner
If there is a barking dog in your neighborhood, talk with your neighbor before
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making a complaint. The owner may not realize that the dog is barking and
causing a disturbance; dogs tend to bark when their owner(s) are not home. Try
to work out a mutually agreeable and reasonable solution in a neighborly
manner.
If you are uncomfortable approaching your neighbor directly, Larimer Humane
Society advises you to print the Noisy Pet Letter for your corresponding
jurisdiction and deliver it to your neighbor.
Neighborhood Services also provides information on its web page regarding mediation
services:
Neighborhood Services offers provides free and confidential Community
Mediation to help Fort Collins residents in conflict. Mediation is a dispute
resolution process that is an alternative to hiring lawyers, going to court, calling
enforcement agencies, or allowing the conflict to escalate. The Program
provides a team of professionally trained volunteer mediators to guide the
process and help people resolve the conflict in a civil and respectful way.
Mediation is available to neighbors prior to reporting complaints to Larimer Humane
Society and it can also be offered as deferred prosecution for a citation.
Members of the public may contact either Larimer Humane Society or Neighborhood
Services for assistance in talking to their neighbors.
If neighbors choose to move forward with a complaint, they can call Larimer Humane
Society or utilize Access Fort Collins.
Larimer Humane Society process re: Animal Disturbance complaints and
citations
Animal disturbance complaints, warnings and citations are guided by the Fort Collins
Municipal Code (Code) and Larimer Humane Society’s Animal Protection & Control
Procedures.
Under Section 4-94 of the proposed Code, no person may be found guilty of a violation
unless it was initiated because of a citizen complaint. This means an Animal Protection
& Control Officer (Officer) can only issue a citation in the event a citizen reports a
violation.
When a complaint is received for a specific address, Officers check for prior reports
(within the previous 12 months – directed by procedures) for that address, and whether
the same owner(s) or animal(s) were involved. If there are no previous
warnings/citations, or the animal owner is identified as a new resident for the address, a
warning may be issued. The procedural twelve-month time frame accounts for the
changing seasons and temperatures that lead to a rise or decrease in animal complaint
calls. Obviously, during the warmer months, there are more complaints because
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animals are outside more often. Therefore, if an animal owner is given a warning in the
summer, he or she is still on notice of a potential for a violation in the spring.
A warning is a courtesy created by Animal Protection & Control to the animal owner to
put them on notice that a complainant is reporting their animal as creating a disturbance
before a citation is issued. It also allows an Officer to demonstrate that the animal owner
has been made aware of the complaint and of the applicable section of the Code. This
warning allows the owner time to remedy the disturbance through such things as animal
training, changes to their environment, and communication with their neighbors before a
citation is issued.
At the time a warning is issued, animal owners are not told who made the complaint. It
is recorded and may be requested through a Colorado Criminal Justice records request.
There must be an analysis done pursuant to the law before a determination is made as
to whether this information is to be made publicly available. The purpose behind not
readily disclosing is to grant a "cooling off" period to potentially mitigate neighbor
confrontations. Further, oftentimes, people who report these animal disturbances do not
wish to speak with or to confront their neighbors or to voice their concerns for fear of
retaliation, confrontation, or other unknown reasons. Reporting parties are also asked to
give the animal owner approximately a week to remedy the issue.
Currently, a warning is not typically issued without a complainant being willing to attach
their name to a complaint, along with specific information about the address of the
animal(s), a description of the animal(s), and a time and date when the disturbance(s)
occurred. (As proposed in Ordinance No. 119, this becomes a formal requirement for a
citation to be issued.) Disturbance complaints are most often reported after they have
occurred, and very difficult or almost impossible for an Officer to observe upon arrival in
response to a complaint. Oftentimes, the only evidence is the statements of the
complainant and animal owner. Occasionally, there may be written logs by the
complainant or audio or video recording of the disturbance or other witnesses.
Once an animal owner has received a written warning, Animal Protection & Control may
issue a civil citation for subsequent reported violations within twelve months from the
date of the last reported disturbance. A citation will not be issued without a citizen
complaint, in which the complainant supplies their name and a statement detailing the
specific location, animal description, time and date of the disturbance, and details the
noise that caused the disturbance. The complainant must be willing to appear in court if
the animal owner contests the violation.
Number of Complaints
In the last year (10/1/2019 to 9/30/2020), Larimer County Humane Society received 425
complaints for Animal Noise; 146 warnings were issued; and 37 citations were issued.
Additionally, 72 complaints were determined unfounded and no action was taken; 52 of
the complaints had prior warnings in the last 12 months and were investigated for
possible citation – of those, only 37 citations were written.
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Prosecution process re: Animal Disturbance citations
Once a citation is issued for Animal Disturbance, an arraignment date is set for the cited
animal owner to meet with the prosecutor, and the animal owner may accept a plea
bargain offer by pleading liable or guilty, or set the case for a hearing or trial.
The prosecutor is guided by the Code and the Court’s Schedule of Fines when
determining what kind of disposition to offer an animal owner with an Animal
Disturbance citation at arraignment. The Animal Disturbance violations and penalties
are as follows:
1st violation within 12 months is a civil infraction violation and $175 fine
2nd violation within that same 12 months is a civil infraction violation and $350
fine
3rd violation within that same 12 months MAY be a criminal misdemeanor
o Otherwise, it is a civil infraction violation and $500 fine
The max possible penalty for each these violations is a $3,000 fine.
A prosecutor will consider the totality of circumstances before making an offer to the
animal owner to resolve the case. Where appropriate, the defendant in an Animal
Disturbance case may be offered a deferred prosecution, with the waiver of all fines and
costs on the condition of a successful mediation and no animal violations for 1 year.
(both parties must be willing to participate in mediation for this to be offered.) This
means that if there is a successful mediation, and the owner has no further animal
violations for 1 year, the case will be dismissed. The mediation is provided through
Neighborhood Services, is free and confidential, and designed to help Fort Collins
residents in conflict.
Disposition of Animal Disturbance Cases in Municipal Court:
In the past year 622 animal-related cases of all types were filed. Of these, 57 involved
Animal Disturbances. Of the 57 cases filed: 2 were deferred, 21 were dismissed, 17
had fines suspended on conditions, 16 resulted in a fine, and 1 defendant was found not
guilty by a municipal judge.
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