By Rupert Howell
Deputy Sheriff Bobby Billingsley presented a proposed “dangerous dog” ordinance to the Panola County Board of Supervisors during their Thursday, August 22 meeting.

“You’d be shocked at how many (vicious dogs) there are. . .,” Billingsley said. “We’re not talking about a barking dog chasing a car.”

Billingsley serves as the sheriff’s department’s animal control officer.

Billingsley explained that state laws, “Are pretty antiquated to say the least,” and that he had researched 12 different ordinances to come up with the recommended one presented Thursday.
Billingsley noted that dog attacks on children and adults are on the rise and that he gets calls, “ . . . practically every day.”

The animal control officer asked supervisors to consider the issue a threat to community safety and welfare and told of instances where vicious dogs had attacked children causing permanent scarring or worse.

“There are a lot of (vicious) dogs running loose or someone leading them with a 20 foot chain,” he warned.

Supervisors took the recommendation under advisement with board president Kelly Morris stating later, “We have got to put something in place to take care of this (vicious dogs)” but prefaced that statement with, “There are a lot more things to take care of before we consider the ordinance.”

Morris also noted damage to livestock in several instances where vicious or feral dogs had attacked and/or killed livestock that the county was later asked to bury.

The board president and the animal control officer emphasized the proposed ordinance is not breed-specific.

Morris explained later to The Panolian that having a proper place to house vicious dogs was one of the problems.

Both Morris and Billinglsey said that kennels constructed at Panola County’s jail would not be conducive to keeping vicious dogs.

The proposed ordinance defines a dangerous dog as one that causes injury to a person or domestic animals or has been designated as potentially dangerous and engages in behavior that poses a threat to public safety.

It is further explained that a “potentially dangerous dog” means a dog that may reasonably be assumed to pose a threat by chasing or menacing persons or domestic livestock without provocation in an aggressive manner or an animal running at large and impounded, or with owners cited two or more times within one year.

The sheriff’s animal control officer or his designee would determine potentially dangerous dogs and owners would have an opportunity to file a petition within five days seeking review of the designation.

Owners of dangerous and potentially dangerous dogs could register their dogs after providing proof of proper enclosure, an annual fee of $50, rabies vaccination and proof of $100,000 homeowner’s liability policy, according to the proposed ordinance.