CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The City of Corpus Christi has made revisions to the existing dog ordinance that went into effect on Oct. 1.
These include new requirements for owners of aggressive and dangerous dogs to purchase marked collars, leashes, and signage.
A dog deemed aggressive by Animal Care Services is one that either attacks or kills another animal. A dog deemed as dangerous is one that makes an unprovoked attack on a person.
Joel Skidmore with Animal Care Services said that if a dog harms another animal or person, that doesn't automatically mean the dog would be deemed dangerous or aggressive. The case could be brought to the department's investigation team where the dog's status would be decided.
Animal Care Services has a total of 25 dogs in the system, with 12 deemed aggressive and 13 deemed dangerous. These designations are not based on the animal's breed but on their actions.
"It's based off of a negative interaction that an animal wither has with a human for a dangerous designation or an animal-to-animal attack that qualifies for an aggressive designation," he said.
No new dogs have been deemed dangerous or aggressive since the ordinance went into effect, but Animal Care Services Program Manager Joel Skidmore told 3NEWS that there are five more cases of potentially dangerous or aggressive dogs that are still under review.
"Now there are always ongoing investigations. We have one investigator whose entire jobs duties investigating dangerous and aggressive dogs. Those start with an affidavit," he said.
Once an affidavit is filed, Skidmore said that the overall investigation and case review doesn't have any set timeframe for completion. The reason for that is because "dangerous" is a lifetime designation.
Skidmore said one of the most important changes to the existing aggressive and dangerous dog ordinance was the ability to physically label both the dog and its home with bright orange signage.
"So that way everything is uniform. It's a uniform look and it's a uniform requirement so the citizens, if they ever come to a house with a dangerous dog, they should be able to readily see that there's a dangerous dog on the property because that's a requirement of a dangerous dog owner," he said.
Skidmore said that any dogs currently under investigation stay with their owner until the investigation is over. If a dog owner is negligent and continues to let the dog run around, he said that the city would have the ability to seize the dog with a warrant.
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