County proceeding with dog tag ordinance
by Rick Nelson
Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady this week asked Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow to continue with development of an ordinance requiring owners of dogs to put ownership and medical information tags on their dogs.
The officials stopped short of a requiring dog licenses; they and Sheriff Dan Bardsley have commented that would be expensive to enforce.
Instead, the draft ordinance which Bigelow presented Tuesday calls for dog tags with the owner’s name, address and phone number and also a tag stating the date of the dog’s rabies vaccination.
A violation of the ordinance could lead to fines and seizure of the dog.
Cothren and Brady agreed there should be a grace period before enforcement starts to allow dog owners a chance to get the rabies vaccination information in order.
The commissioners asked Bigelow to draft the ordinance after public outcry over damage cause by loose dogs earlier this year on Puget Island. Two stray black labs got into a chicken coop and killed approximately 100 chickens before the owner of the chickens shot them. Officers were unable to determine the owner of the untagged dogs.