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County staff to draft ordinance requiring boarding facilities to keep vaccination records
Summary
Code enforcement proposed adding vaccination and registration recordkeeping requirements for dog and cat boarding/daycare operations to the hobby-breeder ordinance; enforcement would be complaint-driven and impose warnings and civil citations (class 1, $100 fine).
Highlands County code enforcement on Oct. 21 asked commissioners to authorize drafting an ordinance requiring boarding and daycare facilities for dogs and cats to keep vaccination and registration records on-site.
Beverly Seempley, code enforcement supervisor, told the board current county code does not consistently cover boarding operations and that complaints have shown some operators lack on-site documentation. She recommended the requirement be folded into the hobby breeder ordinance currently under draft and enforced through the existing civil citation process (warning followed by a class-1 citation; second offenses may carry a $100 fine).
Seempley said enforcement would be complaint-driven—animal services would process complaints and paperwork with legal support—and that formal adoption would follow draft and legal review. Commissioners asked staff to reach out to boarding operators and ensure proposed language is enforceable and appropriately targeted at informal home-occupation boarding as well as commercial facilities.
There was broad board consensus to instruct staff to draft the ordinance and return with enforceable language; staff confirmed animal services and legal have been contacted and the department has capacity to process citations.
