leash law?

Is there a leash law. If so what is the exact law. I have seen so many dogs lately with no leashes on. I was out on the lake the other day with a three year old and a big German Sheppard came running at us. I would just like to know the law so I can inform the owners properly.

Thanks

Tim

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2004/rpt/2004-R-0308.htm

Google for the leash laws from the town you were in also.

Connecticut has laws coming out of the wazoo pertaining to dogs and zero, none, nada, pertaining to cats. It's perfectly legal to let your cat roam free, perfectly legal to let your cat walk all over someones, car, boat, or anything else. Cats can't be trapped, shot, or harmed in any way, they have the "law" on their side.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, just an issue I see as lop sideingly wrong.

Bass, that why God made Fishercats..

BA

How many cats charge at people? How many cat bites do you hear about? There is some logic to this.

The hell there is. Cats all over my boat, cats all over my car, cats all over my ATV, and cats all over my property. Call the town and they give you the DEP's number to call, the DEP then gives you the correct number. Call them and they say it's perfectly legal, cats can't be touched. Call a friend who's a trapper and he tells me he can't trap them, the state tells him hands off. With rabies running rampant in this state, not to mention the other deseases that cats carry, they should be regulated just like any other pet. According to the state, cats can do whatever they want, whenever they want. My lawyer told me there is nothing he could do, he suggested I use lead.

We don't handle domestic animals...that means dogs, cats, guinea pigs, horses, cows, chickens, ferrets (unless you're hunting with them), llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, etc.

There is a regulation regarding keeping a dog on a leash in state parks and forests. If you are ice fishing and the dogs are on the ice, unless you are immediately adjacent to a state park or forest our regulation would not apply. At that point (and anywhere off of DEP property) the overall state statute would apply. This law is enforced by state and local Animal Control Officers.

Sec. 22-364. Dogs roaming at large. Intentional or reckless subsequent violation. (a) No owner or keeper of any dog shall allow such dog to roam at large upon the land of another and not under control of the owner or keeper or the agent of the owner or keeper, nor allow such dog to roam at large on any portion of any public highway and not attended or under control of such owner or keeper or his agent, provided nothing in this subsection shall be construed to limit or prohibit the use of hunting dogs during the open hunting or training season. The unauthorized presence of any dog on the land of any person other than the owner or keeper of such dog or on any portion of a public highway when such dog is not attended by or under the control of such owner or keeper, shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of the provisions of this subsection. Violation of any provision of this subsection shall be an infraction.

(b) Any owner or keeper of any dog who, knowing of the vicious propensities of such dog and having violated the provisions of subsection (a) of this section within the preceding year, intentionally or recklessly violates the provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than six months, or both, if such dog, while roaming at large, causes physical injury to another person and such other person was not teasing, tormenting or abusing such dog.

(1949 Rev., S. 3412; 1953, S. 1850d; 1963, P.A. 613, S. 32; P.A. 76-381, S. 11; P.A. 77-63, S. 2; P.A. 96-243, S. 11, 16.)

History: 1963 act specified what constitutes prima facie evidence of violation and distinguished between penalties for first and subsequent offenses, imposing twenty-five-dollar minimum and one-hundred-dollar maximum fine for subsequent offenses, and making imprisonment an optional penalty only for subsequent offenses where previously applicable to first offenses as well; P.A. 76-381 made violation an infraction, deleting previous penalty provisions; P.A. 77-63 prohibited dogs from roaming on any portion of highway, deleting language which had limited applicability of prohibition to those portions of highway "not adjacent to the premises of the owner or keeper"; P.A. 96-243 added Subsec. (b) re subsequent intentional or reckless violations, effective June 6, 1996.

BA

I do totally understand what you are saying about annoying cats. My only point is that I am glad there are leash laws out there for dogs. I do agree that there needs to be some sort of control over cats that damage your property.

I spend a lot of time at burr pond walking the trail and fishing there. Every time I am there I see at least 4 dogs without leases on. The dogs will run through your spread and hit your traps. I love dogs don't get me wrong but they should be kept on a leash in well populated areas. Burr pond is a great place for the dep to go on a saturday if they want to make the state some serious money in fines. Just my two cents.

As for cats, I have never heard of domestic cats hurting anyone. I have had cats all my life and I have never had any of them do any damage to cars, boats, or anything else like that. So what if there are some paw prints on the hood of your car and windshield. Dogs on the other hand are much more destructive.

When I was little I was knocked down by a St. Bernard who was just playing and it broke my arm. I have also seen dog fights where one dog was on a leash and the other not. It wasn't a pretty sight. People have been mauled to death by dogs. I have never heard of a person ever being killed by a domestic cat.

free roaming cats actually have a signifcant impact in terms of song bird predation.

And Wisconsin's solution (almost)?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=662272&page=1


Dave

Now please show me just one law pertaing to cats. Sorry EnConn, It's just something that's lopsidingly wrong and has effected my life personally.

This is the only law I'm aware of regarding domestic cats....we don't deal with them so I don't know if there are any other applicable laws:

Sec. 22-339d. Municipal control of feral cats. (a) A municipality may adopt an ordinance requiring the registration, within one year of the adoption of such ordinance, of keepers of feral cats in residential or commercial areas. Such ordinance shall require that any such keeper shall register with the animal control officer for such municipality who shall provide information to the registrant regarding the proper care and management of feral cats. For purposes of this section, "feral cat" means a free-roaming domestic cat which is not owned and "keeper" means any person or organization, harboring, regularly feeding or having in his or its possession any feral cat. Refusal to permit any animal control officer to impound a feral cat shall be deemed evidence of keeping. Such ordinance shall require that such keepers shall provide for the vaccination of such cats against rabies and the sterilization of such cats. Such keeper shall be considered an eligible owner for purposes of the animal population control program established under sections 22-380e to 22-380m, inclusive, provided such cats are adopted from a municipal pound.

(b) A municipality may adopt an ordinance providing that no person owning or keeping any cat shall permit such animal to (1) substantially damage property other than the property of the owner or keeper or (2) cause an unsanitary, dangerous or unreasonably offensive condition. Violation of such provision shall be an infraction.

I guess you have never had a cats jump and slide off your car with dirty feet or claws out? Or had one pee and or give birth to kittens in your carpeted boat floor over the winter? Use your child's sandbox as a littler box?

Unless it attacks, an unleashed dog is far less destructive as I have seen one do any of the above.

Cats kill Turkeys Poult's and a host of other wildlife. Who say's cat's are not destructive. I own 3 fixed cats and they are inside only cats. I have no mice. Last year I finally had a rabbit frequenting my backyard and within a few days I saw one of the neighborhood cats eating something under a bench in my backyard. I opened my back door and started walking towards it and it took off with a rabbit in it's mouth.

Dogs do everything you said just worse. Just because the dog isn't attacking doesn't mean it can't hurt someone. Like I said before dogs can jump on you to play and you can break bones. Dogs pee and poop all over the place. Cats at least have the decency to cover their bombs. How many times have you stepped in dog $hit, too many to remember. Dogs also kill wildlife not to mention pets (other dogs and cats). I have seen dogs ruin lawns digging. Also my boss has the hood of his truck scratched up from a dog jumping on it. Cats might kill birds, mice, snakes, moles, squirrels, and other small animals, most people would call these creatures pests(other than the birds). Overall dogs are much more destructive than cats.

Cats ? Cats ? You kidding me ? Cats ? Don't talk about cats...

Dogs and cats both scratch cars, pee and poop all over the place, kill wildlife, and are destructive, yet the only laws on the books are for dogs. Today I uncovered my boat that's for sale to show to mattmann7 and it stunk of cat, my neighbors cat or one of the ferral cats she feeds. No laws against it, perfectly legal, totally wrong.

I don't hate cats, I own one. I also don't allow her to roam free and scratch other peoples property, or do any other damage to someones personal property. It doesn't matter wether the damage done is major or minor, wrong is wrong, period.

EXACTLY. A municipality may. Try and find one that does.

How many stray dogs do you see vs stray cats? How many people have yard bound dogs and free roaming cats? Cats are almost always unleashed. Lets be honest, how often do you think a stray dog will jump on the hood of your car? Poop in your yard? You are stretching it when you start getting into broken bones from jumping up as it doesn't take a stray or unleashed dog to do that. Like i said, go try and wash cat pee out of you boat carpet or deoderize under your porch because they like to do their business in the soft dirt. I'd trade a poop scoop or two gladly.

Cats catch and kill an enormous amount of wildlife. I haven't seen too many stray dogs killing off rabbits and usually roaming dogs are reported and dealt with pretty quickly. Motorists who strike a dog are required by law to report it, nothing said about cats, so start driving up and down your driveway. Who placed those open cans of tuna out there??

Well I can't tell you how many times I have been hiking on trails and ice fishing and a cat came running up to me and I had to quickly decided whether or not it was gonna bite me or jump on me wife and little kids. Oh that's right that has never happened. The whole point of the leash laws are to protect people from being hurt by unleashed dogs. Every time I go for a hike dogs unleashed come running to us barking, growling, and most of the time happy wagging their tails. But all it takes is one dog unleashed to attack. Also the owners need to be able to control their dog when on the leash. How many unleashed cats have you heard of breaking peoples bones?

Swmpy I truly hope your joking. If not there is something seriously wrong with you. And you don't think unleashed not necessarily stray dogs kill rabbits and other wildlife.

Hey Flowbase, I truly hope your joking. There are laws for dogs, plenty of them. There are none, zilch, zero for cats. Maybe you enjoy removing the cover from your boat and it reeking of cat urine, I don't. Maybe you enjoy going out to your car in the morning and notice cat prints all over it, I don't. Maybe you enjoy the odor around your porch from the cats, I don't. The ball has to stop bouncing one way.

Just came across this gem , what a ridiculous thread hijacking mess this degraded into.

Winter is almost over then it's time for fishing again.

I lived in a condo for a few years and often parked outside. Cats would leave paw prints on my car. Pissed me off to no end.

Perfectly legal and not a dam thing (legal) you can do.

It was one of the many reasons I moved to a house on 5 acres. No cats, especially with our dog able to roam the property and do as he pleases.

You're wrong jon, absolutely wrong. In the eyes of the law, cats can't do any wrong, it's always the dogs fault. If a cat comes onto your property and causes your kenneled dogs to bark, the owner of the cat can sign a complaint and win. Enough complaints like that and your dogs can be destroyed.

For over 30 years I've lived on 11 acres, 145 acre wooded tract on 1 side of me, 300 acres of Consumer Union property on another, ~120 acres state owned across from me, and 1 losey neighbor with cats that moved in a few years ago. My wife now lives in upstate New York with our dogs or our dogs would have to be destroyed because of that neighbor who purposely went out of her way to cause the problem. We could no longer afford the legal fees, it cost that neighbor nothing to sign the complaint, the state paid the rest.

Cats disappear around here. I think its the coyotes.

Oh wow, no wondor you have a thing with cats, I see your frustration. However, is sounds like you have a crazy unreasonable neighbor and your dogs bark too much.

I had a neighbor back in the day with two dogs, which I hated. I really wanted to kill those things. I didn't have to because he ended up moving pretty quick after a few heated discussions. If a leaf blew by, they would bark, if a squirell was in sight they would bark, if a cat went by they would bark, basically if anything moved or made a noise they would bark. It is not the fault of the leaf, cat or squirrell that the dogs always barked - IT IS A DOG PROBLEM !

The reason there is no laws pertaining to cats and there is with dogs is because dogs are dangerous and cats are not. I don't think anyone really cares if a cat is in their yard or if one left paw prints on their car, there is more important things to worry about..

Wow, I can't beleive I just wrote all this about cats and dogs..

I really like that TV show the dog whisperer. It really shows that every problem with a dog is due to the owner.

"Sure you have to get a dog license, but there's no test that you have to pass."

Coyotes where I am also, have pictures of a deer they killed in the driveway 2 years ago. Have a feeling the yote problem is going to get much worse.

Mike , yotes love cats. You should try to attract a few more to your place .

Everybody seems to be missing the point here. I don't hate cats, I have one. Dog owners are held responsible for their dogs, cat owners should also be held responsible for their cats. As long as I own the land and pay the taxes I should also be able to keep unwanted cats off and I can't. Cats can go anywhere they want, any time they want, no laws against it. In Connecticut there isn't anything legal I can do. In order for me to stop cats from coming on my land or jumping on my property I must break the law. This is not right.

spray em' with the garden hose, one good spray and thats it

GOOD GOLLLLLY MISS MOLLY!!!!

I have a better idea, how about some laws for cats to hold owners responsible for their animals.

We get it already.

You hijacked somebody's thread to make a stand....

Hey you cats,(shake his cane at them) get off of my lawn!

Yes I did, and I also admitted doing it and apologized for doing it in my original post. Flowbase then added to it and kept it going.

No more hijacking this thread from me.

Trying to manage these threads is like trying to herd cats.