The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors are working toward passing its own dangerous animal ordinance after a 12-year-old boy was mauled by a pack of six dogs while riding his bicycle down Sawyer Road on March 15. The child, Aiden Green, remains in intensive care at a Jackson Hospital recovering from his injuries.
Since the attack, supervisors have been reviewing animal ordinances from other Mississippi counties and municipalities to create their own dangerous animal ordinance to help prevent this tragedy from happening again.
Doll Stanley with In Defense of Animals spoke with the board about possible ordinances to address dangerous dogs and nuisance animals, and she urged the board not to make their ordinance “breed specific” for bully breeds like pit bulls. Stanley said a nuisance animal ordinance will cover the county for a multitude of issues – from livestock breaking free from a fence to barking dogs to animals destroying a neighbor’s property.
Stanley asked the board if they would speak to the public and private schools about allowing her to go into the classrooms to educate children about animal behavior and how to avoid getting bitten. The board agreed that giving children the knowledge to protect themselves would also be good in preventing another incident.
The board reviewed ordinances from Grenada County, Monroe County, and the City of Winona, and after looking over all three ordinances, Supervisor Willie Townsend, Jr., recommended the board adopt a dangerous animal ordinance.
Chancery Clerk Ryan Wood said, “I think we need to give the sheriff some teeth [in the ordinance]. He would have to go out and determine is the dog was dangerous.”
The measure was tabled until the board’s next meeting on April 18 at 8 a.m. at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
In other county news:
• The board approved Sheriff Bubba Nix to reapply for the DUI grant for a fulltime deputy.
• Librarians from the county’s three public libraries presented reports from Winona, Kilmichael, and Duck Hill libraries. They also gave details on National Library Week, which is April 7-13.
