GAFFNEY, S.C. (WSPA) – The City of Gaffney’s animal control ordinance has more of a bite, after city council unanimously passed a stricter version last week Monday.
City Council Member for District 2, Allen Montgomery said loose animals in the city has been a growing concern over the last year.
“One of the, maybe at the top of the list of calls and concerns I receive is dogs,” said Montgomery. “I received a phone call of concern from one of the residents he walks everyday, he tells me everyday one of his neighbors dogs gets after him.”
Some calls came from other districts.
“I had a lady that’s in her 80s she was scared to come out of her own home,” Montgomery said.
Calls like those prompted city council to reevaluate the city’s animal ordinances.
“A stricter and a stronger law when it came to tethering animals,” Montgomery said. “The old ordinance we didn’t really have anything in really written out anything to do with tethering, any tethering rules and regulations.”
Under the new ordinance those rules are clearly defined to not only give neighbors a peace of mind, but to keep animals safe.
“The animal has to be on what they call a runner, that’s a line running from post to post and on this line, there is a tethering line that connects to the animal- the dog’s collar,” Montgomery said.
The line must be made out of a material that not metal.
“This protects the dog from if there is like a storm and there is a lightning strike and the lightning hits the line, it doesn’t come down the tethering line and cause harm to the animal.”
Montgomery tells us that the city’s new ordinance mirrors Cherokee Counties existing animal control regulations.
