Springfield residents shared stories of encounters with roaming dogs in the city’s neighborhoods at Monday night’s Springfield City Council meeting. Council is considering changes to Springfield’s animal ordinance. Proposed improvements to the code include raising fees for having a dog running loose and creating and a more efficient and graduated process to increase the consequences for repeat offenders.
“All pet owners in our community are required to have a rabies vaccine,” said Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Katie Towns. And they are required to have their dog on a leash when they are in public. Those are two basic things and they seem very simple, but oftentimes that pet on a leash can become a little bit hard for the community to stay on top of.”
Currently, the minimum fine for a dog running loose is $10. The updated code would raise that to $50. Dogs must also display a rabies tag showing that they’ve been vaccinated…