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Kosciusko County's commissioners said Tuesday no new county ordinances are needed to control stray dogs in the county.
State laws already cover the subject of nuisance dogs, county attorney Mike Miner said.
The commissioners' and Miner's remarks were in response to a proposed ordinance introduced last month by county resident Hershel Rainwater.
Rainwater was following up on the submission Tuesday to see what the commissioners were doing about it.
"I'm getting a deaf ear, that's all I'm getting," said Rainwater.
Miner said there were two reasons for the difficulty in enforcing the existing ordinances.
The first one was the lack of resources. Since the prosecutor's office distributes county police resources according to severity of the crime, he said, they start at murders and robberies and work their way down.
The second problem was with the general lack of evidence in cases regarding nuisance dogs.
Miner said the commissioners were not the ones to handle Rainwater's problem, which should be discussed with the prosecutor and the sheriff.
"I won't be babbled off on this," said Rainwater. "These three commissioners are the boss of the sheriff (and) of the prosecutors because these are constitutional offices."
"Which means they report to the state," Miner said.
Miner told Rainwater the laws and statutes dealing with stray dogs were already in state law.
"They're not being used, they're not covering all the problems," said Rainwater.
He said he had called Sheriff Al Rovenstine about a problem with his neighbor's dog.
"I don't know if the sheriff called this person," said Rainwater, but since he made the call, "that dog has been quiet."
"Sounds like the problem got taken care of," Miner said.
Rainwater said that problem was taken care of but wanted to know about other problems. He said he was asked by several people to make the request of the commissioners.
"Am I supposed to go out every day and beg these people to be quiet? No, that's up to the county to keep peace in the county," he said.
"Do you want me to take care of it vigilante-style?" Rainwater said. "I'll drive down the street with my .22 and I'll put these dogs to sleep without collars and tags. Is that what you want? Of course not."
Eddie Creighton, county commissioner, said the problem would not be solved during Tuesday's meeting.
"I will follow up with the sheriff and the prosecutor if necessary, and the area plan commission," Creighton said. "We'll see what ordinances, laws, statutes are on the books now that can be enforced here locally and see if these people can't bring something to bear on that. Then we'll go from there and see what we end up with."
