Changes made to animal regulations

MAT-SU -- For nearly a year, the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation Board has been working on revisions to Title 24 of borough code, the section pertaining to animal care.

It's been a long process, chief animal care and regulation officer Dave Allison told the borough assembly before they approved the changes Tuesday, but the end result will be better for all involved.

"This, essentially, changes the way we do business," Allison said.

One of the most significant changes is to the classification of animals involved in specific incidents. Under the old ordinance, the chief officer was responsible for making the final determination of whether an animal fits into one of three categories -- potentially dangerous, dangerous or vicious.

The new regulations add two levels of classification and makes more clear the types of behavior that lead to a classification.

"It gives us a lot of ability to work with animals and owners -- and to be more strict or reduce the sentence," Allison said of the changes. "A lot of times things were clouded -- people didn't know the difference between a bite and a vicious bite."

The new regulations also set more clearly the duties of the ACR board, a quasi-judicial board who hears appeals to the decisions of classification or written orders or other administrative decisions by ACR staff. The board also acts administratively, such as in the rewrite of Title 24.

The changes made to the document, Allison said, do not affect any pending animal-related cases.