Associated Press
DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) - Deadwood officials approved new rules this week that prohibit owning wild, dangerous and exotic animals within city limits, an ordinance that followed opposition to a wildlife education center that opened in the town.
The new ordinance was proposed in June, a month after state regulators ruled that a wildlife education center could house wolf pups and fox kits in the town. It prohibits people in Deadwood from keeping or selling a variety of animals, including “dangerous wild animals” such as wolves and venomous snakes. It also prohibits breeding animals that the City Commission considers dangerous.
“We don’t need that type of situation in our community,” Commissioner Dave Ruth, who made the motion to approve the amended ordinance, told the Rapid City Journal. “In my mind, what this ordinance does is protect our residents from people deciding they need to have pets that are dangerous or venomous or animals that could escape. It also protects animals so they are not being exploited.”
In May, the South Dakota Animal Industry Board voted to grant a permit allowing Terri Petter to house her animals in Deadwood. Petter, and anyone else who already owns dangerous animals, would be grandfathered in under the proposal.
Ruth said in June that the ordinance wasn’t in response to Petter’s education center but said her proposal did cause officials to re-examine what ordinances were in place.
Petter didn’t immediately respond to a voicemail left Saturday.
The ordinance originally would have banned pet birds and would have eliminated someone’s grandfathered status if they were involved in legal action in another state or lost their license in another state. That language was removed.
Ruth said there were concerns that the language could have led to legal action against the city.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.