Batavia considers cat leash law, bigger fine for leaving waste behind
Cats and other animals could soon have to wear a leash in Batavia when not in their own fenced yard.
The city council will vote Monday to change city law, which now only requires dogs to be leashed.
Another change will make it clearer that you have to pick up your animals' feces if they do their business on somebody else's property or on public property.
Violators could be fined up to $500, although city administrator Laura Newman said Tuesday the city would likely start with a warning, followed by graduated fines.
Newman said staff has recently reviewed the city's animal-related laws and that the waste and leash portions were unclear, particularly in how to enforce them.
Alderman Dave Brown, who has been on the council since 1997, recalled the uproar the last time in 1998 the city considered making cats be leashed.
A resident had complained roaming cats were overly keen on defecating in her yard, and there was nothing the city could do about it.
The council at that time added animal waste to a law prohibiting pollution, and set a fine of $50. It dropped the cat leash idea.
Brown favors the new proposal. "I think that it is good ... because if somebody abuses that kind of situation, there should be something that our code enforcement can do," he said.
Tickets will likely be issued only when someone complains, according to Scott Buening, community development department director. That prompted an alderman to ask, facetiously, if the city would test the DNA in waste to identify perpetrators.
"We're not sitting there being cat police," Buening said.