Curry County adopts comprehensive animal-control code update as Ordinance 25-03

The Curry County Board of Commissioners adopted Ordinance 25-03 Tuesday night, a comprehensive rewrite of the countyanimal-control and protection code intended to align local rules with state statutes related to dangerous animals, dogs at large and livestock harms.

County counsel presented the ordinance during a public hearing that opened at 6:42 p.m. The presentation said the current Article 4 is "antiquated" and that the rewrite incorporates existing restrictions on retail animal sales and predatory-animal controls while clarifying enforcement priorities and response protocols. The board read the ordinance title and opened the hearing by title only. No members of the public offered comments during the hearing.

Commissioner (speaker 2) moved to approve Ordinance 25-03 and the motion was seconded; the board voted to adopt the ordinance with a 2-0 vote and Commissioner Trost recorded absent. The clerk recorded the ordinance as adopted and the chair announced, "Ordinance 25-03 is adopted." The ordinance was described as repealing and replacing divisions 1 through 4 of Article 4 and adding divisions 5 through 11 to create the consolidated animal-control and protection code.

The county said the update is intended to provide clarified guidance for local enforcement and to correct inconsistencies with process-oriented state statutes. The ordinance will be filed and may be cited by its adopted number. The board did not schedule additional public hearings on this item following adoption.

The ordinance adoption is a final formal action taken by the board at the Dec. 3 meeting; implementation details and enforcement protocols will be handled by county staff and appropriate enforcement partners.