by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Residents in Sartell will be allowed to have a maximum of two dogs, as spelled out in a revised animal-control ordinance approved on a 3-2 vote by the city council at its April 27 meeting.
Three of the council members, however, are asking city staff to explore the possibility of making an exception to the two-dog rule for rare cases such as for blended families, for fostering purposes or for military personnel who need to find someone to take care of their dog or dogs while they are away for duty.
Those who have more than two dogs under a special “kennel” provision per the city’s previous ordinance will be “grandfathered” in and will be able to keep the extra dogs. The previous ordinance allowed for from three to five dogs per household under the non-commercial kennel provision. Sartell City Administrator Mary Degiovanni noted in the past five years, there have never been more than 11 or 12 kennel permits issued.
The council’s decision came after a public hearing at the April 27 meeting. Those voting for a strict limit of only two dogs were Amy Braig-Lindstrom, Steve Hennes and David Peterson. Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll and council member Pat Lynch voted against that limit. Braig-Lindstrom, however, said she agrees with Lynch and Nicoll that possible exceptions to the rule, in rare cases, should be considered, as long as city staff can come up with viable exceptions.
Two people in the audience spoke in favor of the two-dog limit. Susan VanVickle, who lives on Brookwood Lane, told the story of her 5-year-old grandson who was bitten in the face by one of three of a neighbor’s pit bulls after the dog crawled under a fence into VanVickle’s yard. The experience was not only traumatic, she said, but the aftermath was frustrating because the dogs owners never did show any accountability for the dog’s actions. The people who owned the dogs moved, and VanVickle said she still worries about that dog biting someone else, wherever it is now. She said she realizes not all pit bulls are dangerous but that two of those neighbors’ pit bulls showed aggressive behavior. VanVickle said there were no laws that could be enforced against those neighbors, even though she talked with police, city staff and others. As a result, she and others were always fearful when out in their yard last summer. She told the council if laws cannot be enforced against such dog problems now, there should not be more dogs allowed that would just make the problem worse.
Another audience member, Lyle Fleck, also said he does not want more than two dogs per household in the area where he lives, saying more dogs would mean more barking and more problems.
“Two is enough,” he said.
Sartell resident Lisa Schreifels, who is the health officer for the City of St. Cloud, also spoke at the public hearing. She has worked with many dog-bite cases that range from nips on a leg to more serious injuries that require stitches and even disfiguration, although the latter are very rare, she added. In some cases, the dogs must be ordered to be euthanized, which is always very difficult for the owners, she noted, but most often they understand there is no other recourse.
Council member Pat Lynch said he favors a three-dog limit because there are many responsible pet owners, people who love their pets whether there are only one or up to three of them. People who have multiple dogs, he said, are probably more responsible than some people who have only one dog and are irresponsible about it.
Mayor Nicoll agreed with Lynch, saying she too is in favor of a three-dog limit.