Incident leads to talk of leash law

WILLIAMSBURG — An incident on the new Williamsburg trail prompted its police chief to ask the city council to consider a leash law. A dog nipped at someone running on the Rec Center trail, said Chief Justin Parsons. No one called police, and no citations were issued.

Williamsburg’s city code prohibits animals from being at large, said Parsons, but it doesn’t specify that the animals be on a leash. The code says the animals must be “under control,” which is subjective.

“We need to decide if we want to say it’s on a leash,” said Parsons.

Councilman Tyler Marshall said he likes having well-defined ordinances, but he doesn’t want to legislate something that rarely happens. A trained dog that’s off a leash is not a problem, Marshall said.

City Manager Aaron Sandersfeld said that, with the new trail in place, people will meet unleased animals more often.

“I don’t want dogs running loose,” said Mayor Adam Grier. “I don’t know if they’re safe.”

City Attorney Eric Tindal estimated that police write one citation a year for animal violations. Citations are written only after people have been warned several times, said Tindal.

Most citations are for dogs that escaped their property and have attacked a person or another dog, said Parsons. “We do have a lot of dog bites,” he said — between six and 12 a year.

Police don’t write citations when a pet escapes a property. People call the police and ask for help getting the animals back, and officers do that, Parsons said.

Police try not to write too many citations because prosecuting it costly for city. Tindal suggested that the city increase the fine from $105 to $500 to cover the cost of prosecution.

“To me, it’s already there,” said Steinkamp. “At Large,” means not on a leash.

But the ordinance specifically says “under control,” said Parsons.

Marshal said he “doesn’t have much of a stomach” for requiring a leash. Keeping the language as it is means it’s at the discretion of police if the dog is not under control, said Marshall.

The city council will discuss the issue again during its Dec. 11 meeting.

Changing an ordinance that involves dogs will bring out the public, Tindal said.