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Politics & Government

Eagan Amends Pet Ordinance

Pet owners will now have to obtain vaccinations and licenses for their animals at four-months of age rather than six-months. Other changes impact bite incidents and make it easier to license your dog.

The Eagan City Council voted to amend licensing and vaccination requirements on Tuesday night. The changes in the dog, cat, ferret and horse regulations will require pet affected pet owners to obtain vaccinations and licenses at four-months of age rather than six-months as the previous ordinance read.

Eagan Police Chief James McDonald requested the changes in an Aug. 5 memo to the council citing new inoculation standards, convenience for pet owners and streamlining enforcement and quarantine actions as the main reasons.

Current City Code requires dogs, cats and ferrets be vaccinated at six-months of age,” said McDonald in the memo. “Staff believes existing code regarding pet vaccinations is based upon the idea it was harmful to administer rabies vaccines to animals under six-months old. However, all vaccinations marketed in the United States for dogs, cats and ferrets have been approved to be administered at four months.”

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McDonald said the change the change in licensing requirements to four-months would also help to eliminate possible confusion for pet owners and provide consistency and convenience.

The city is working on an on-line licensing service for pets to provide further convenience for pet owners. According to McDonald’s memo, Eagan is believed to have approximately 12,000 canine residents of which approximately 70 percent are unlicensed. The police department has been making a sincere effort to encourage residents to license their dogs.

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The new amendment also requires new residents or those who obtain a pet to license the dog within 10 days. That language had been missing previously.

The changes from six to four months are also expected to cut down on the amount of noise complaints animal control receives by also reducing the amount of time residents can keep more than four dogs or cats, or combination thereof, on a property without a kennel permit.

“The primary purpose for a lot of this ordinance is to make sure that the animals we keep as domestic companion animals don’t become a vector for serious diseases,” said Councilmember Paul Bakken who was on the council when ferrets were approved as pets thanks to advancements in veterinary science that provided suitable inoculations for those animals. “And as those methods and best practices change it makes sense to change the ordinance and that’s exactly what’s being done here.”

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