New Ellenton looks to adopt town animal ordinance
NEW ELLENTON, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - New Ellenton town leaders are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Aiken County by ing the town’s own animal ordinance.
Aiken County ed the ordinance several years back and New Ellenton applies to the ordinance, but town leaders want one specifically for the town itself.
Officer Thomas Ayre with the New Ellenton Police Department says he noticed a problem in the town several months back.
“One of these houses, a few months ago, a dog ed away, and the dog laid there in the yard for at least three or four days before the owners removed the dog from the yard,” said Ayre. “So that was three or four days that kids were walking to school, walking past this house, and seeing a dead dog laying out there in the yard.”
Ayre says he wants to take the animal ordinance already in play for the county and apply it to the town because as a town officer, he currently has to wait for county officers to enforce the ordinance.
“A fairly common thing we actually see a lot is the dog houses will get broken, torn up, normally the top half of them or the roof of them and they’ll throw that away but then they’ll keep the bottom half and just flip it upside down and use that,” said Ayre.
Ayre says he reached out to Robin Mitchell with Palmetto Animal Services to help.
“Several months ago, one of the officers reached out to me about some situations that were going on with some dogs that were chained up there that they had some concerns about,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell collects dog houses to give out to pet owners for free with her program Saving the Chain Dogs.
“I have about 10 dog houses right now that we’ve recently gotten in and usually I can give almost all of them out on a weekend just in Aiken County alone,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell says she gives out about 40-50 dog houses each year.
“We do this to help the dogs in our community,” said Mitchell. “No one wants to drive around our community and see dogs that need help.”
Ayre said: “If we can get these tethering laws ed, the dog will be kept on at least a 15-foot chain and that alone is going to double if not triple that dog’s area that he has to run.”
The ordinance was introduced to the New Ellenton town council on Monday and has to two readings before becoming official.
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