WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) -- Wausau's police chief says new tools in place to handle animals in the city are making it easier for his department to investigate complaints.
Chief Jeff Hardel says new ordinances and the new animal control officer means the department can devote more resources towards dog complaints. "We're just doing a better job of tracking the animals, tracking specifically dog bites and doing a better job of investigating the viciousness of the dog."
Hardel says his officers now have the time to do thorough investigations into complaints like dog bites. "Trying to get to the personality of that dog, and if that dog bites without provocation, and there's significant injury, it's most likely we're going to declare it dangerous." The dangerous designation requires that owners microchip their dogs, keep them restrained or in a secure fence, and register with the city each year.
The city's regulations on dangerous animals allow owners to appeal those declarations from the police department, and many have over the last several months. Hardel says his officers are now able to provide the city attorney's office and the rest of staff information needed to back up their case. "All of those interviews are placed in the report forwarded to the public health and safety committee. So we just do a better job of tracking, and we're giving the public health and safety committee a lot more information than we have in the past."
The city's new dangerous animal ordinances were put into place two years ago and now allow the police department to decide on the designation of an animal rather than requiring the city to take an owner to municipal court.