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Walking dog in Sugar Grove? Get a leash

Sugar Grove is tightening animal laws to give police more authority to deal with people who walk dogs without a leash or keep dangerous dogs.

"It's been nice in the past not to have a leash law, but maybe we have come to a point where we need to have it," Village President Sean Michels said.

The matter came up in May when a resident complained about being attacked by a dog that had escaped its yard. The board then learned that while police can ticket someone for having a dog running loose, there was no requirement to have a dog on a leash while it is walked. And there was no village authority to do anything if a dog bites someone.

"What I want to stop are the people who don't put the dog on a leash and the dog charges at a 3-year-old girl," Trustee Ted Koch said. For a child that young and short, "It is like having a racehorse coming at you, And then you have the dog owner insisting their dog 'never bites.' "

He said one year he had to take his daughter and his wife, separately, to an emergency department for treatment of dog bites.

Under the proposed new law, if you are walking your dog on a sidewalk, street or parkway, it must be on a leash.

And "leash" means a cord, rope, strap or chain connected to the dog, "of sufficient strength and connection to the animal to prevent escape."

"We have seen dogs break free from an electronic fence or collar," Police Chief Patrick Rollins said, when Trustee Kevin Geary asked if it would be OK to walk dogs using an electronic leash.

A dangerous dog will be one that, while unmuzzled, unleashed or unattended by its owner or custodian, appears, to a reasonable person, like it is going to hurt or kill them or their own pet. If a dog bites a person without justification, it would be deemed a dangerous dog, according to the proposed law.

People could keep dangerous dogs only if the dog is confined in a way to keep it from injuring anybody who is lawfully on their premises or near the dog. They would have to post signs warning that they have a dangerous dog.

"If somebody is going to have their dog outside and it attacks the UPS driver, they don't deserve their package. They should be better owners," village clerk Cynthia Galbreath said.

The changes also outline the procedure by which the village can have a dog impounded and ask a circuit court judge to rule the dog a nuisance.

Police would still have discretion about ticketing in cases where a dog leaps a fence or escapes out a door and runs down the block. And dogs could run around their own yard without a leash or tether, if the owner or custodian is present and the dog obeys their voice commands.

Geary also wanted to make sure the law didn't list certain breeds as dangerous. "I'm kind of speaking up for the pit bull owners in the crowd," he said. Geary has two of them. He said people have threatened to kill his dogs, based solely on the reputation of pit bulls as dangerous, aggressive dogs.

The board will vote on the law June 21.

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