Chattanooga Likely to Bring Back Animal Control Board
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- A long vacant board on the Chattanooga City Council might soon make its comeback.
Chattanooga’s Animal Control Board has been defunct since 2018.
Advocates say it is a necessary body that needs to be reestablished to help facilitate animal ordinances and permits within the city.
Chris Anderson, a Senior Advisor for Legislative Issues for the Mayor, said, “The Animal Control Board was created by City Council when I was actually a member of City Council in 2013 to study animal permits and also to assist the Council at the time legislating about animal issues.”
Chapter 7, Section 7, Article 8 of the City Ordinance establishes this Animal Control Board.
In Clause C of Section 7-153, the ordinance states that this Board will have the authority to grant, suspend, or revoke all animal permits.
For day to day operations though, this does not mean a lot of changes for reporting animal code violations on the front end.
Anderson said, “The Animal Control Board is not some new agency that people can take complaints to or concerns to. McKamey Animal Center is still the city’s animal service. So McKamey actually would send cases to the Animal Control, similar to how cases get sent to the Beer Board or the Board of Zoning Appeals.”
What this would mean for residents is that if you need to report any sort of violation related to the city’s animal codes, you would still contact McKamey.
We reached out to McKamey to get their thoughts on the Board’s return.
They sent us a statement reading quote, “We have not yet received any details about plans for the establishment of an Animal Control Board, and as such cannot comment. We look forward to hearing what the City Council recommends, and of course are always eager to see and contribute to improvements in conditions for animals, animal lovers and residents of our City.”
The Board would have nine representatives, with each City Council member selecting a representative of their district.
Anderson said, “We’ve already had three of the nine council people express who they want to fill that spot for their districts in the last week, so I expect that we’ll have a fully appointed board in May.”
The Animal Control Board, when established, will be meeting once a month.
Those meetings will be open to the public.
