Please plan on attending this final Open House to show your support for the breed ban repeal! Please share with everyone you know in Castle Rock!! You will have a chance to speak with the Town Manager, Council Members, Town Attorneys and Animal Control!
From the Town: Learn about the proposed changes
Save the date: open house Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018

The Town has undertaken a comprehensive review of the Town's Code related to animals. This thorough review included all animals, so we’ve studied our local laws and taken your feedback on bees, chickens, cats, dogs, exotic animals, feeding wildlife, licensing, and services animals.

We've considered your feedback, researched legal authority and studied neighboring communities' laws and more. Now, we have changes we’re planning to recommend to Town Council. We wanted to update you.

Save the date for an open house
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018
6-8 p.m.
Town Hall Council Chambers, 100 N. Wilcox St.
Join us to learn about these proposed changes and ask questions.

First: What we learned from your feedback and research
We carefully reviewed hundreds of comments, and we appreciate that you took the time to provide detailed feedback. We also considered data related to about 600 local dog bite cases, as well as various scholarly articles and numerous ordinances from around the country. It’s an important topic, so it’s a lot of research.

Here are our top five take-aways:

Residents who responded favored lifting the Town's breed-specific ban: On this topic, we received about 300 comments. About 209 were from residents, 36 were from non-residents, and 76 were undefined as residents or non-residents. In that, 128 residents were in favor of lifting the ban on pit bulls.

Research shows bans can be difficult to enforce: Research and review of court cases shows the animal’s behavior is a better indicator of aggressiveness than breed.

We need to be specific about chickens. Town Code currently allows chickens as part of a total number of allotted animals, but feedback indicated we should be more specific. The changes propose to address the permitted number of chickens as well as cooping requirements and humane treatment. Roosters would be prohibited.

We need to be specific about bees. We recommend including bees with the Animal Code, rather than zoning provisions where it currently lives.

We need to clarify number of animals. Currently, our Code limits the total number of all animals. The proposal suggests updating this area of the Code to be more specific about dogs and cats.

Here is a full list of the proposed changes:
Lift the Town’s current breed-specific ban and replace it with a two-tiered dangerous and potentially dangerous provision
Keep the licensing requirement
Clearly define service and emotional support animals
Allow chickens and bees with clear guidelines
Better define the number and types of animals allowed
Clearly prohibit wildlife feeding (except birds)
Incorporate new state and federal laws related to the Pet Animal Care Facilities Act
Update penalty and enforcement provisions
Read a memo detailing some of this information, or watch a video presentation.

It’s important to note these are proposed changes to the Town Code. HOAs will continue to have their own rules and regulations separate of Town Code.

Questions? 
We know you might have questions about these proposals. Visit with us at our open house in January, or submit your question online, and we'll answer them during the open house and online at CRgov.com/animals.