In a vote that came down to a tiebreaker, the Storm Lake City Council on Monday upheld the city manager’s recommendation to determine a dog to be a vicious animal, thus ordering the dog to be removed from city limits.
On May 29th, a German Shepard named Poncho allegedly ran across the street from its home and bit an adult female in the area of 610 West 6th Street while she was picking up mail.
City code defines a vicious animal as one that inflicts “serious injury” on a human. “Serious injury” is defined as a bite that breaks the skin of the victim.
During a city council appeal hearing Monday, the council’s vote on upholding the city manager’s vicious animal recommendation ended in a 2-2 tie, which meant the vicious animal ruling stands. Council members Kevin McKinney and Maggie Martinez voted in favor of the recommendation, while Meg McKeon and Maria Ramos voted against it. Council member Matt Ricklefs was absent from the meeting.
The dog owner, Neira Rodriguez, apologized for the incident. She said Poncho hadn’t done anything like this before, and doesn’t understand why it happened. Rodriguez asked that her family be allowed to keep Poncho because he’s been an emotional support dog for her son, even though he isn’t registered as one. She said she was looking to correct actions that hadn’t been done, as Poncho also wasn’t licensed with the city, and was behind on his shots.
Council member Ramos said due to the unknowns in the case, she felt more comfortable allowing the dog to have a thorough evaluation before making a final decision. McKeon mostly agreed with that, but expressed concern about what the council would do if Poncho had another bite incident.
Martinez said the city has had problems with dogs biting, and said the council has worked hard to update ordinances, and they should stand by city policies.
McKinney said it bothered him that the dog ran across the street and bit the victim, and didn’t want to set a precedent…
After the vote, City Manager Keri Navratil said the council had the option of postponing the hearing and setting another appeal date when the full council was present. The council decided not to go that route. The city would have had to pay Lake Animal Hospital for holding Poncho additional days. McKeon said she was sorry it had come to this, but they went through the process, and the council made its decision.
