Lima city councilman Derry Glenn speaks at Monday night’s neighborhood concerns committee meeting.
Jacob Espinosa | The Lima News
LIMA — When it comes to safety concerns in Lima neighborhoods, not every dog is “man’s best friend,” an issue discussed Monday by Lima City Council members.
Lima city councilman Derry Glenn made a motion to investigate the viability of involving park rangers to handle problems with nuisance dogs at Monday night’s Neighborhood Concerns Committee meeting.
Lima residents shared stories about encountering neighborhood dogs without leashes and Allen County Dog Warden Julie Shellhammer shared information about what to do if threatened by a loose dog.
“A lot of times, people don’t want to worry about retaliation from neighbors,” Shellhammer said. “People can actually file charges themselves to the prosecutor, but they need pictures and witnesses if the dogs are at large and trespassing.”
Resident Donna Glover told the committee she had no desire to hurt an animal, but when she was cornered by five dogs one day in her garage she thought she might have to do that to save her life.
“I don’t hate dogs; in fact I love them,” she said. “We need to address the issue with irresponsible dog owners.”
Glover sought help from police and the warden, but both Shellhammer and a Lima Police officer shared that there was not much they could do other than issue citations to the offending parties.
“If I had more staff, we could do the entire county and there are a lot of neighborhoods like that,” Shellhammer said. “If we can get back into our community associations and neighborhood associations, maybe we can work together to make a bigger dent in this.”
Councilman Glenn spoke harshly on the issue, calling for park rangers to help given their training and availability.
“We know our police department is very busy and the warden is saying they are down to one person and it’s tough for one person to do all the work so we asked for help from the park rangers,” he said. “But we have to get all of that checked out to make sure it’s okay. We’ll have another meeting to take care of our rules and laws regarding that.”
Shellhammer said she has seen 11 dogs come into the warden’s office since Friday and the county has documented 75 dog bites so far this year.
The warden also pointed to the city’s voucher program to help residents get animals spayed and neutered.
While the city’s vouchers for cats have been filled, Shellhammer said there are still some available from her office for dogs.
Anyone can get an application for a voucher from the Allen County Dog Warden at 1165 Seriff Road in Lima.
For more information on the SNAP program, visit bit.ly/4br55Jt.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
