GEORGE NEWS - Residents and visitors are asked to adhere to the George municipality's by-law relating to the regulating of the keeping of dogs and cats and other animals since there were enquiries from the public relating to dogs in public places.
The by-law was instituted to provide for the control over the number of dogs and cats that may be kept, the breeding with dogs and cats, control over dogs and cats and other animals by their owners, impounding stray dogs and cats and other animals, the prevention of nuisances and to provide for incidental matters.
Under the provisions of section 156(2) of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the George municipality enacts as follows:
4.6 Prohibitions relating to the keeping of dogs
No person shall – permit any dog owned or kept by him or her –which is in the assessment of the authorised official ferocious, vicious or dangerous, to be in any public street or public place, unless it is humanely muzzled and contained on a leash and under control;
- to trespass on private property;
- to constitute a hazard to traffic using any public street;
- to constitute or to his or her knowledge be likely to constitute a source of danger or injury to any person outside the premises on which such dog is kept.
The by-law further states a dog should be in any public street or public place on a leash and under control unless the dog is in an area designated by the municipality as a free running area.
- to be left alone unattended in an open bakkie in any public place or public street;
- to be left alone unattended in a closed vehicle / bakkie in any public place or public street;
- to keep a vicious dog on a property without displaying a board outside the property of a possible danger.
This could lead to the conclusion that although there is no signage to prohibit dogs from swimming in the Garden Route Dam, that dogs cannot swim unless they are on a leash and the owner walks next to the dam. Dogs should at all times be on a leash in public places in George and surrounds.
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