A bill that would allow localities to prohibit residents from owning hybrid dogs has unanimously passed both houses of the General Assembly but will return to the Senate for a final review.
On Friday the House of Delegates passed Senate Bill 444 – designed to allow localities to adjust ordinances to prohibit hybrid dogs – on a 98-0 vote with an amendment. The bill will now return to the Senate, which originally passed the bill on a 40-0 vote Feb. 5.
Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3rd) carried SB444 at the request of James City County.
In October, a hybrid wolf escaped its home, killed a Yorkshire Terrier and wounded another dog before police shot and killed the animal on Jester’s Lane near Powhatan Secondary. Area residents began turning out at Board of Supervisors meetings to request something be done about hybrid animals.
In November, citizens got what they had been asking for: The board enacted an ordinance making hybrid canines unlawful to own unless James City County Animal Control had issued a permit for the animal. Various other regulations dealing with number of hybrid canines, insurance, location and notification were included in the ordinance.
Norment, along with other area state legislators, met with the board in late November to hear the board’s wish list for the General Assembly’s 2014 session. Norment offered to carry a bill that would provide a method for determining when a canine is considered hybrid and another that would allow localities to prohibit keeping hybrid canines. Those merged into the bill that’s being considered now.
In Norment’s bill, sections of existing state code are amended and re-enacted to define a hybrid canine as any animal that “is or can be demonstrated to be a hybrid of the domestic dog and any other species of the Canidae family,” which includes wolves, foxes, jackals and coyotes. SB444 defines adequate confinement for a hybrid dog as being an enclosed structure with 100 square feet of floor space for each adult animal at a minimum. Tethering a hybrid canine would not be considered adequate.
The bill also adds to a section of existing state code the ability for localities to prohibit hybrid canines by ordinance.
Assistant County Attorney Lola Perkins said the bill isn’t a done deal just yet as it does have to head back to the Senate. If it is approved, however, James City County would be legally able to prohibit all hybrid canines.
If the board does decide to ban hybrids, Perkins and other county legal staff would work with the supervisors to draft an ordinance. The ordinance would then go before the citizens for a public hearing before approval.
Related Content:
- Norment’s Bills Look to Modify Criminal Penalties, Allow Prohibition of Canine Hybrids
- JCC Supervisors, State Reps Plan 2014 Legislative Program; Supes Defer Vote
- JCC Enacts Hybrid Canine Ordinance; Current Hybrid Owners Can Keep Pets
- JCC Supes to Vote on Legislative Priorities, Hybrid Canine Policy
- Hybrid Wolf Attack Prompts County to Investigate Regulatory Options
