§ 6-13. Compliance with sanitation standards required for keeping livestock, small animals or fowl.

(a)

[Compliance with standards.] Every person keeping any large livestock, small animals or fowl as authorized in this chapter shall comply with the standards of sanitation established therefor by the director.

(b)

Animal waste, sanitation standards.

(1)

The owner of each animal is required to remove any feces deposited by the owner's animal on public or private property.

(2)

Feces deposited by an animal on public property or on the private property of any person other than the animal's owner must be collected and removed at once by the animal's owner. Animal feces deposited on any other property must be collected and removed daily.

(3)

Collection and removal of animal feces must be in a container that, when closed, is rat-proof and fly-tight. The container must be kept closed after each collection and, at least once a week, all collected feces must be disposed of in a manner that does not permit fly breeding or other unhealthy conditions.

(4)

All animals shall be kept in a sanitary manner. Small animal owners shall collect and dispose of animal waste by placing it in a disposable container, sealing the container, and disposing of it as household garbage. All manure and other animal wastes from livestock shall be removed from pens, corrals or standings at least once each day. This material shall be deposited in a manure storage bin of concrete or metal construction and shall be rat-proof with a fly-tight lid. Such manure and other animal wastes shall be removed from this bin at least once each week to a disposal site approved by the director.

(5)

No animal owner shall allow the accumulation of animal waste on any premises in a quantity sufficient to create an odor offensive to a person of normal sensibilities standing on any adjacent property not owned or controlled by the subject animal's owner, or which creates a condition conducive to the breeding of flies or other pests. It shall be unlawful to permit or allow fly breeding on premises on which livestock are kept, and permitting or allowing such shall authorize the denial, suspension or revocation of a permit by the director. Livestock owners shall have and maintain a fly control program.

(6)

The accumulation of animal waste on any premises so as to create a stench or harborage for flies or other pests is hereby declared to be a public nuisance. Upon delivery of a written "notice to clean" by the director of animal care services department, animal control or housing and neighborhood services or other designated representatives, an animal owner or any adult occupant of the premises identified in said notice shall abate the therein described public nuisance on the premises within twenty-four (24) hours. Delivery shall be accomplished either by hand to the animal owner or keeper or any adult occupant of the residence, or by posting in a conspicuous place on the main entrance fence gate of the premises or main entrance door of the structure on the premises, or by certified mail, return receipt requested.

(7)

An animal owner or keeper shall not walk an animal without a leash restraint, and shall not guide or take animals onto the yards or driveways of property not owned, leased or occupied by the animal owner for the purpose of allowing the animal to defecate, but shall keep the animal in the public right-of-way, and shall carry a container and implement for the sanitary removal of the animal's fecal matter from the public sidewalk and public right-of-way adjacent to any property with a structure or other improvements thereon.

(8)

The director of animal care services department is authorized to enforce the provisions of this section, and may summarily abate and remove any immediate public health and safety hazard due to the presence of animals by declaring the conditions to be an immediate public health hazard and/or public health nuisance, and shall execute an administrative order that the premises be cleaned to city health code standards by the city or its contractor within twenty-four (24) hours. Furthermore, each individual is authorized to petition a justice or municipal court for a court order for the seizure of a particularly described animal or all animals kept on the subject premises, to be impounded or cared for as a cruelly treated animal pending a full investigation and hearing before the court in accordance with V.T.C.A., Health and Safety Code § 821.022, as amended.

(Ord. No. 86-24, § 1, 2-17-86; Ord. No. 2010-O-029, § 1, 3-15-10; Ord. No. 2016-O-132 , § 2, 9-12-16)