Borough overhauls animal regulations

PALMER — A five-year effort entailing more than 50 public meetings has resulted in a complete overhaul of Mat-Su Borough rules regarding domestic animals.

“We took it from point A to point C with no issue being untouched,” John Wood, who was chair of the borough’s Animal Care and Regulation Board until he recently resigned, testified at the borough assembly’s Jan. 6 meeting.

Referencing a photo of one of her children former governor Sarah Palin posted to Facebook, as Wood finished his testimony, Mayor Larry DeVilbiss quipped “You didn’t have anything in there about using dogs for stepping stools.”

The overhaul did indeed touch just about every part of the code. It added a litany of definitions where previously they were lacking. For instance, the borough now defines a “bite” with regards to dogs and other animals as “seizure of an animal or human with the teeth of an animal so that they puncture, tear, or grip.”

Some of those definition changes had a clear point to them. For instance, according to a staff memorandum accompanying the ordinance that eventually passed, “annoyance” was modified to give animal care and regulation officials latitude to ensure “if a person moved into a mushing neighborhood that the nature of this neighborhood would be taken into consideration if a complaint is made.”

The code changes also added a lengthy section outlawing animal fighting. State laws already consider animal fighting a class C felony.

Another code change requires an emergency evacuation plan as part of the application for a kennel or cattery license.

Yet another change allows animal care and regulation officers to euthanize an animal in an emergency rather than waiting until they can confer with a veterinarian and thus extending the animal’s suffering.

And while the vast majority of the changes had to do with domestic animals, it was a piece of the code having to do with wild animals that drew a crowd.

Kyle Wait, a Butte resident and member of the Alaska Trappers Association, was the first to express what quickly became a majority opinion of trappers in the room when he advocated striking all the language regarding trapping from the borough codes. The consensus seemed to be that trapping was already regulated by the state and the borough should leave it up to the Alaska Board of Game.

Another trapper, Patrick Wright, agreed.

“I’m a second generation Alaska trapper and I want to pass that heritage on to my grandchildren who are teenagers now,” Wright said. “The Alaska Board of Game has the authority to set trapping regulations and methods and means.”

The trapping rules did two main things: they outlawed trapping within 100 yards of the right-of-way of a publicly maintained road and they instituted a requirement that trappers receive explicit permission from a landowner before trapping on the person’s land.

The memo accompanying the ordinance said that the borough’s Department of Law actually advocated against adding a trapping section.

“The board rejected that suggestion,” the memo reads. “At code revision meetings, there was public testimony regarding pets that had been snared or otherwise trapped within subdivisions.”

Assemblyman Matthew Beck moved to strike the trapping language.

“I’ve come to learn with multiple conversations with our borough attorney and multiple other people that trapping is a state issue, it’s not something that we as a borough enforce,” Beck said. “Title 24 has to do with domestic animals, it’s not wild animals.”

Assemblyman Steve Colligan also supported omitting the trapping language.

“As a young man growing up in Fairbanks I did a lot of trapping,” he said. “It’s a long-lived lifestyle and sportsman’s opportunity and I wanted to thank you all for coming out and speaking up, but on the other hand I want to apologize for it getting this far.”

Colligan wasn’t the only former trapper on the dais.

“I’m probably the only one here that earned my way through college trapping right here in the Valley,” Mayor DeVilbiss said. “If any of you know the traditional Native way of tanning hides I’m trying to resurrect that… I’ve been doing a lot of research and I can’t find anything on it.”

Assemblyman Vern Halter, a longtime dog musher, said that he inhabits a lot of the same country as trappers and had never had trouble with them.

“I welcome you out there, I love to see you, I hope trapping is good.”

Eventually the assembly agreed unanimously to remove the trapping language. The rest of the changes to the animal ordinances likewise passed without objection.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.