Meridian’s animal control ordinances are a bit behind the times and need to be updated to reflect industry best practices and fall in line with state law, the City Council learned Tuesday.

Animal Control Supervisor Brian McCary said the city’s animal control advisory board had been working its way through the city’s ordinances and had put together a packet of changes for the council to consider.

Some of the recommended changes are small, McCary said, such as changing “dog” to “animal” so that the city can be sure the ordinance is covering cats and other domestic pets. Other changes, such as cruelty to animals, are much more serious.

Under the city’s current ordinance, depriving an animal of food and water until it dies is a misdemeanor offense. The advisory board recommends that be changed to a felony, which is in line with state law.

Additional changes include limiting the number of animals a person can have without a special permit, which is intended to crack down on unofficial foster homes and breeders, and increasing the length of allowed tethers from less than six feet to less than 12 feet.

McCary said there were also changes to some of the fines and penalties for those who violate the city’s animal control laws to match those with state law as well.

In addition to updating the city’s current ordinances, McCary said there were also recommendations for new ordinances for the council to adopt. One example, he said, would require citizens to register their pets and pay a registration fee. The registration not only helps the city know how many pets are around, which is necessary information for grants and other funding, but also increases the chances a lost pet is reunited with its owner, McCary said.

“We need things in place to be able to help the animals inside the City of Meridian and hold people accountable,” he said.

Meridian Animal Control is working to set up a humane fund as well, where the fees from registrations, fines and other income will go toward helping spay and neuter shelter pets.

Councilwoman Romande Walker said she was glad to see the fees were reasonable and won’t be out of reach for Meridian residents.

Keeping the fees low was intentional, McCary said, as animal control needs the community’s support to be successful. Just having ordinances on the books won’t solve the problem, he said. Residents need to know and follow the city’s laws, and the city must also be able to enforce the ordinances when needed.

Animal control is not a new field, McCary said, and there is plenty of evidence showing what works and what doesn’t. What the city needs to do now, he said, is put the programs and policies in place to get the result it wants.

Parking Sticker

The council on Tuesday also heard from Gina Laughlin, an employee at Generations Fine Paper and Gifts, a downtown business, about potentially creating a parking sticker for those who work in the downtown area.

Laughlin said she knows she is not alone in finding a parking ticket under her windshield wiper from time to time after failing to move her car from a two-hour parking spot or half-hour parking spot. With the city parking garage too far to comfortably walk, she said she and her coworkers try to avoid tickets by shuffling their cars around throughout the day to avoid spending too much time in one parking space.

Should the city choose to implement it, Laughlin said her idea is to create a parking sticker downtown workers and residents could purchase from the city granting them immunity from the time limits on parking spaces.

Walker said the idea was definitely worth looking into further, and Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey added she has had discussions about similar concepts recently and liked the idea as well.

City Attorney Will Simmons said the council would need to look at the issue further and flesh out the details before such a decal could be offered. The city will need to define what areas are included in the downtown areas, whether or not short term parking spots for curbside pickup and deliveries are included, how much the sticker will cost and more.

The council will likely need to draft and pass an ordinance to implement the parking sticker, Simmons said, and those details will need to be included in the ordinance language. He advised council members to coordinate with community development, which would likely be the point of sales for the sticker if implemented.