New Animal Ordinance Gets Preliminary OK

As of Sept. 27, residents of the City of Falls Church will be limited to seven pets in their homes. The City Council gave preliminary approval to a new "Animals and Fowl" ordinance Monday drafted by Animal Warden Officer Becky Keenan to bring the City into compliance with new state laws. While the City has had caps on the numbers of dogs and cats allowed in a home (four of each), it has never put a cap on the total number of pets, as now proposed.

Keenan cited a recent case of an apartment where 11 snakes were found along with 24 rats (for feeding to the snakes) and an iguana. The law, she said, prohibited her from doing anything about the situation, except for the case of one of the snakes that exceeded the allowed length of nine feet.

The situation will be addressed by the "seven maximum" provision of the proposed new law, which will also scale back the allowed length of snakes from eight to six feet.

Animals allowed to be kept at pets in the City are dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds which are normally purchased through a pet store, gold fish and aquarium fish, non-poisonous snakes less than six feet in length, domestic rabbits, mice and rats which have been bred in captivity and have never known the wild. Everything else is classified as "wild or exotic animals," and it is illegal to keep any in Falls Church. The new law would also give new authority to the animal warden to determine, after investigation, whether a dog shall be classified a "dangerous dog." Such dogs, identified by behavior outlined in the statute, shall require confinement and insurance by their owners. The warden will also determine if the classification of a "vicious dog" (one which has seriously injured or killed a person) shall be applied to a particular case. "Vicious dogs" are uniformly put down.