After an hour or so of debating, no hard decisions were made at Tuesday night's city council meeting in Onawa over the future of a local St. Bernard. The city is arguing that the dog is a danger and something must be done to stop it from hurting someone in the future. The dog's owner says the St. Bernard is a therapy animal, his lifeline and is just a gentle giant.
Roughly 50 people packed inside Onawa's City Hall building Tuesday night to talk about the future of a St. Bernard in the community. The city and the dog's owner are at odds over Zhivago the dog.
But earlier in the day, Zhivago's owner, Billy Parker, says a city council member stopped by to meet the dog and see about its temperament himself.
"And the whole time, his tail was wagging. The hair wasn't standing up on the back of his neck or anything like that," said Billy Parker, Zhivago's Owner.
Parker says he knows his dog is big and he knows he can seem frightening. But he says he believes his dog is just a gentle giant whose never hurt, or bitten anyone.
"If he was in the house and you knocked on the door, he may bark. But if you're already in the house and sitting down, he'll just come up and crawl right up in your lap and just lick your face," Parker said.
Parker presented at Tuesday's council meeting, acknowledging that his pet had gotten loose in the neighborhood before but stresses the dog isn't a danger, though he may seem it. Other community members came out to testify that they've been frightened by the St. Bernard in the past.
Police say the dog has not bitten anyone, to their knowledge. But you can classify the dog as a dangerous, vicious animal according to city codes if it 'worries' community members, and a few residents came forward Tuesday saying that it had done so in the past. One of the residents who came forward was a 13-year-old Onawa boy, who says the dog chased him one day while he was biking.
So they're NOT trying to take his dog. They're simply trying to get the dog to have court-ordered restrictions on it since the owner isn't taking it seriously.
"I saw a dog. It charged at me. I ran, using the bike to fend it off. It kept on running at me, so then I threw the bike down and went to bang on the doors hoping someone was there," said Shawn Holton, a 13-year-old Onawa resident.
Holton says the dog did not try to bite him. But he was very scared by it.
"It chased me. So, I just don't want anyone to hurt it and I don't want the dog put down at all," Holton said.
Onawa's Police Chief and others presented to council that the dog was potentially dangerous to the community. The city council member who visited the dog earlier in the day argued that he could easily see where the dog would frighten people, but stressed the dog had many opportunities to bite multiple people and never did.
Unable to immediately decide what to do about the dog, council gave the okay to move the decision until their next council meeting April 14. They also discussed changing the ordinance so other options for the future of the dog, for example, allowing for a steep fence to house the dog in the yard, could be considered.
In the meantime, a South Dakota woman has donated a large kennel to the Parker family for Zhivago, so they can keep him outside safely.
(SiouxLandMatters - March 24, 2015)
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