Chapter 4.03
ANIMAL HEALTH
Sections:
4.03.010 Provisions to supplement state law.
4.03.020 Penalty—Violation of this chapter.
4.03.040 Sanitation requirements generally.
4.03.050 Restraint of animals for testing.
4.03.060 Quarantines requirements and rabies suspects.
4.03.070 Animal disease reports.
4.03.010 Provisions to supplement state law.
This chapter shall in all respects be construed to supplement and harmonize with the provisions of the laws of the state of California pertaining to the animal industry.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.020 Penalty—Violation of this chapter.
Any person, firm, association or corporation violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.030 Severability.
If any provision of this chapter or application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter, and the application of such provisions to those persons or circumstances, shall not be affected thereby.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.040 Sanitation requirements generally.
Every premise where animals are kept, fed, stabled or otherwise cared for, or any premises on which a hog ranch or slaughterhouse is maintained, or where meat products are prepared for food, shall be kept in a clean and sanitary condition.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.050 Restraint of animals for testing.
1. The owner of any animal shall properly confine in stanchions or chutes any such animal which the director may designate for the purpose of examination, injection, observation, administration of tuberculin or mallein, or other specific tests or procedures.
2. If the owner of any animal refuses to properly confine the animal for examination or testing within twenty-four hours after he is requested to do so by the director, the director may employ help and incur such expense are necessary to properly control such animal for the purposes mentioned.
3. The expense so incurred shall be a lien upon the animal and shall be recovered by action in the name of the city, unless paid within ten days after written notice of the amount has been given by the director to the owner or person in possession of the animal.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.060 Quarantines requirements and rabies suspects.
1. Notification Required Regarding Rabies. It is unlawful for any person having knowledge of the whereabouts of an animal known to have or suspected of having rabies or has shown symptoms of rabies, to fail, refuse or neglect to immediately notify the director, or to fail, refuse or neglect to allow the director to make an inspection to determine whether or not such animal has rabies. The director shall likewise be notified of any person bitten by an animal of a species subject to rabies, whether or not the animal is suspected of having rabies.
2. Duty to Report Animal Bite. Whenever the owner of any animal has knowledge that such animal has bitten any person, the owner shall report said fact in writing forthwith to the director. The report shall state the name and address of the person bitten and the time and place such person was bitten.
3. Animals to be Quarantined for Ten Calendar Days. Whenever it is shown that any animal has bitten any person, the owner thereof, upon order of the director, shall not fail, refuse or neglect to quarantine such animal and keep it securely confined on a chain or in a closed cage or paddock for a period of ten calendar days or shall not fail, refuse or neglect to allow the director to make an inspection or examination thereof at any time during the period. No such animal shall be removed without written permission of the director.
4. Infectious Diseases—Duty to Report and Quarantine Procedures.
(a) Whenever the director has determined that an infectious disease exists among animals in any other city, county or area of the state of California and the importation of animals from such area might spread such disease among the animals within the city, the director shall notify the city council thereof, designating and describing the area wherein such disease has been found and shall, with their approval, establish quarantine restrictions against such area as the circumstances warrant.
(b) The director may refuse to permit shipments of animals originating in such areas to enter the city unless accompanied by a certificate signed by a state or federal veterinarian which shall satisfactorily prove that there is not a possibility that the animal for which such certificate is issued is infected with or exposed to any infectious disease. Any animal entering the city from any area so described and designated without such certificate may be quarantined by the director and confiscated or disposed of in such manner as to eliminate any danger of the animals within the city being exposed to infection from such disease.
5. Duty to Report Infectious Diseases and Assist Enforcement. It is made the duty of any person suspecting or having knowledge of the presence of any infectious diseases in animals to:
(a) Report same to the director;
(b) Assist the director to enforce the provisions of this chapter; and
(c) Obey all director’s orders made for the control and eradication of infectious diseases, the sanitation of premises, destruction of animals, and disposal of carcasses, manure, offal, refuse, condemned meat and meat products.
6. Right of Entry for Inspection, Quarantine and Other Protective Measures Authorized.
(a) Upon receiving information of any infectious disease affecting animals within the city, the director shall proceed to thoroughly investigate the same.
(b) The director is empowered to enter any premises where animals are kept, or on which the director has reason to believe that animals are kept, in order to enforce the provisions of chapter, and it is unlawful for any person to interfere with the official action of the director.
(c) The director may quarantine, for a reasonable period of observation and until such tests as may be required to ascertain the presence or absence of any infectious disease are completed, any animal which is suspected of being infected with or exposed to an infectious disease.
(d) Upon discovering any infectious disease affecting animals in the city, the director shall have the power and it shall be his duty to establish such quarantine, sanitary, testing, immunizing and police regulations as may be necessary to control or eradicate such disease and prevent the spread thereof to other animals.
(e) The director may quarantine any animals which may have been exposed to infection from such diseased animals or which may have been located upon the land or premises where such diseased animals have been kept, and thereafter it is unlawful for any person to break such quarantine or to move or allow to be moved any such animals from within the premises thus quarantined, or across the quarantine line so established, without first obtaining a permit to do so from the director. If the director deems it proper to issue such a permit after inspection, director may cause such animals, premises and vehicles of transportation, and any infected material, equipment or effects, to be properly cleaned and disinfected.
7. Interference With Notices Prohibited. It is unlawful for any person during the existence of a quarantine established under this chapter, to remove, tear, deface, mutilate, obscure or otherwise destroy, or in any other manner whatsoever interfere with any placard, notice or proclamation declaring such quarantine, placed on or about the premises on which any of the animals so quarantined are located.
8. Watercourses—Protection from Quarantined Animals and Infectious Materials. It is unlawful for any person to permit any animals quarantined under this chapter to have access to any irrigation ditch, stream or other channel in which water is running or may run at any time through such quarantined premises, or to allow such animals to come in contact with other animals which may have access to any irrigation ditch, stream or other channel so mentioned, or to permit the depositing in such irrigation ditch, stream or channel of any manure, offal, excrement or material which might carry infection, or to allow the drainage from any premises so quarantined to come in contact with such irrigation ditch, stream or other channel aforementioned.
9. Quarantine of Dogs Used By Law Enforcement Agency. Notwithstanding any other provision in this code, a dog used by any city, county or state law enforcement agency shall not be quarantined after biting any person if such bite occurred while the dog was being used for any law enforcement purpose. The law enforcement agency shall make the dog available for examination at any reasonable time. The law enforcement agency shall notify the director if the dog exhibits any abnormal behavior.
10. Quarantine of Guide Dog Serving Blind Master. Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, a guide dog serving a blind master shall not be quarantined, in the absence of evidence that he has been exposed to rabies, unless his master fails:
(a) To keep such guide dog safely confined to the premises of the master;
(b) To keep such guide dog available for examination at all reasonable times.
11. Glanders Disease—Destruction Requirements. Whenever the director determines that any animal is affected with the disease known as glanders, the director shall have such animal destroyed in a humane manner and have the premises thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and to order the owner of such animal to cremate, bury or deliver such animal to a rendering works approved by the director. If the owner of such animal fails, neglects or refuses to bury, cremate or deliver same to an approved rendering works within a period of twenty-four hours from the issuance of such order, the director shall cause the same to be buried, cremated or delivered to an approved rendering works at the expense of the city, and the expense of such burial, cremation or delivery to an approved rendering works shall be charged against such owner, to be recovered by action in the name of the city.
12. Foot-and-Mouth Disease—Right of Entry for Examination—Holding Period. When the director has reason to believe that there is a possibility that foot-and-mouth disease exists on any premises in the city, the director shall have the power to enter the premises and to place and keep thereon any such animal as may be necessary to determine the presence of foot-and-mouth disease in accordance with the rules and regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture, and to keep such animal under his supervision and control for a period not to exceed fifty days.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)
4.03.070 Animal disease reports.
1. Duty to Report Designated Diseases—Form of Report.
(a) All licensed veterinarians, kennels operators, and persons making a business of having charge, custody or control of animals, who have knowledge of or have reason to suspect that an animal is infected with tuberculosis, glanders, anthrax, rabies actinomycosis, cysticercosis, trichinosis, tularemia and coccidiosis, or any other infectious disease which might become epidemic and transmissible to mankind, shall, within twenty-four hours, report to the director the following facts:
(1) The name and address of the owner of the animal;
(2) The number of animals infected;
(3) The probable source of infection;
(4) The steps taken for control and;
(5) The name and address of the person making the report.
2. Tissue Samples Required When. The director may require licensed veterinarian who has been in charge of or who has been called upon to treat any animal with any of the following diseases, to submit to the director or to a laboratory designated by the director, a specimen of tissue for verification of diagnosis: glanders, anthrax, actinomycosis, cysticercosis, trichinosis, tularemia and coccidiosis. In the case of rabies, the director may require the submission of the head of the animal detached from the body.
(Ord. 1984 § 1 (part), 5-23-95)