Chinook considers dog control laws

Chinook may be on its way to revising their animal laws.

Thursday night's Chinook City Council meeting began with a comment from John Sestrich, who has a few loud dogs near his house that get all the neighborhood dogs going.

According to Sestrich, there are 22 dogs in his neighborhood who are mostly well-behaved, but there are four dogs in the area that will bark at anything they can see and end up getting the rest to respond.

While the problem is more pronounced in the spring and summer, when Sestrich and his neighbors might want to work in the lawn or just have a window open in their house, the problem persists even in the winter.

Gary Anderson lives just down the block from Sestrich, and he confirmed Sestrich's complaint.

"I live clear down the other side of the block, " Anderson said. "It's bad.

"I think people need to understand there's responsibility with pet ownership. "

Mark Weber, Chinook police chief, said he has looked into the problem in the past and found that a lot of the cases were caused by stray cats running around town.

He said he has been catching those cats to try and cut down on all the barking, but the city might have to consider some more proactive measures.

The whole discussion took place during the public comment section of the meeting, so the council could not take any immediate action.

The council members indicated that they may, in the coming months, look for a fuller legal solution to these problems.