Finance Committee discussed the parish animal abuse and neglect ordinances after a resident brought up concerns about the welfare of some animals in the parish.
Kelly Stonicher said she was bringing the matter to the council’s attention as she looks to have every parish in the state adopt stricter ordinances regarding animal welfare.
Stonicher said that some animals at one location in St. Martin Parish had been reported to have been left out with little protection during the winter cold snap, and again in the heat of the summer with little protection, food or water, and tethered on chains that are too short.
Stonicher said she has called the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office on a few occasions about the animals and those sent out to check on the animals tell her that the situation is not really a dog issue but a conflict between neighbors.
Stonicher said that she has been told that some animals have died in the heat in that yard, and the animals there appear to be very thin and don’t have proper water or food.
The shelters included dog houses that are broken, or have their roofs open, or are dog carriers or wire crates that provide little protection.
Stonicher said that a second effort to have welfare checks resulted in some action by the Sheriff’s office but no citations were written and no follow- up was discussed. A third visit by the Sheriff’s office found that the animal had been removed by that time in response to the complaints.
Stonicher said her ultimate goal is to get animal welfare ordinances changed in every parish in the state, but asked the council in the meantime to enforce its ordinances for animal owners.
“I understand that’s not important to a lot of people, but it is important to the animals and it is important to us,” she said.
Tauzin said that one good thing about the parish animal control ordinance is that it was written by then-parish attorney Chester Cedars, who later became the Parish President and is now the attorney for the Sheriff’s Office.
“So he knows the ordinance,” Tauzin said. “I compared the ordinance to Lafayette and Iberia and surrounding parishes. Our ordinance is a lot stricter and stronger than our neighboring parishes. If people read that ordinance and follow that ordinance, 80 percent of people who have animals — dogs and cats — would not have dogs and cats in this parish.”
Tauzin said he asked the sheriff to send a representative to the meeting to talk with Stonicher about the issues, but that representative was out of town.
“But the sheriff did express a concern for me to get with you, and said he would really like to sit down and have a meeting with you, and discuss some of the issues,” Tauzin said.
Animals
The parish council can write ordinances but can’t enforce them, he said. The sheriff must enforce those ordinances, and is willing to speak with her to resolve the issues she is having, Tauzin added.
“Our ordinance is really strict, almost to the point where it’s too strict at some points, but I understand where you come from,” he said. “We raise animals, we have a farm. My kids showed livestock. My grandkids show livestock. We have horses. I understand where you’re coming from. Just about everybody who sits on this council or has sat on this council before has dealt at some point with animal cruelty and neglect of animals. We all see what’s going on.”
Tauzin said the parish ordinance provides the requirement for people to bring animals into shelters with enough room to move around and enough food and water during cold or hot extremes, so he doesn’t think the ordinance can be improved much. But he wanted Stonicher to have a chance to express her concerns and to put her in touch with Sheriff Becket Breaux to find solutions for the issues she’s raised about enforcement.
“Let me correct myself as well,” Stonicher said. “Your ordinances are great. But there’s actually one ordinance we really would like to put in place across Louisiana, and it’s probably pretty difficult, but we would like to have a spayneuter requirement. That would be my only suggestion because if we could stop some of the overpopulation, that would hopefully stop some of that (abuse and neglect that we see).”
“I agree,” Tauzin said. Tauzin added that Parish President Pete Delcambre would confirm that the parish spends a lot on its animal shelter, and that he wishes every animal could be spayed or neutered because a lot of the animals brought to the shelter are from the same people whose pets keep breeding and adding to the animal population.
“We don’t want to put animals to sleep, but at some point in time there’s nothing you can do with them and it’s just overpopulation,” Tauzin said.
