News

Laurel Park leashes dogs, protects birds

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 7, 2016

LAUREL PARK — Laurel Park dog owners now must keep their dogs on a leash.

The town had gotten along forever without the requirement. Police officers usually knew where a free runner belonged so they just put them in the back of a cruiser and carried them home.
Now the town has given way to modern era.
Dogs have to be on a leash off the property and “under the control of a competent person,” the new ordinance says. Previously, the town ordinance allowed owners to keep their dogs under “immediate and close voice control.”
“Dangerous, vicious or mischievous dogs” must be muzzled and firmly controlled by a leash or chain and are barred from parks and greenways in any case.
Town residents can’t keep pigs, sheep, cattle, horses, goats and other livestock but it’s OK to employ goats for six months at a time to consume unwanted vegetation.
The animal ordinance rewrite the Town Council adopted last month also makes Laurel Park a bird sanctuary. It’s now unlawful to hunt, shoot “or attempt to molest in any manner any bird or wildfowl or their nests.”