Proposed animal control ordinance revisions in St. Landry Parish

St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard is proposing animal control ordinance revisions to address puppy mills and vicious animals in St. Landry Parish.

ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY) - St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard is proposing animal control ordinance revisions to address puppy mills and vicious animals in St. Landry Parish.

Last year, St. Landry officials raided an alleged puppy mill and ultimately found more than 200 dogs living in unhealthy conditions.

St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard told KLFY News 10 that in the raid they found animals "living on top of each other." He continued, "it is highly against the law and just an animal cruelty port."

Now, President Bellard is proposing a revision to the animal control ordinance in St. Landry Parish. He told KLFY News 10 that "what we are doing is we took some of what we had before and added things to it regarding the problems that we have these days in front of us now."

President Bellard also mentioned that one of the biggest revisions to the ordinance regards animal breeders, as people with more than six animals of the same species will need a permit to be identified as a commercial breeder.

President Bellard stated that if you have that many animals of the same species, "we will classify you as commercial to keep an eye on it. It does not cost anything by a permit."

"It is not like we are making money on the deal, we just want to identify the areas of our Parish that have these puppy mills," he continued.

Another revision will be in regards to vicious animals, much like the pitbull that attacked a man in Opelousas recently.

Bellard's revisions would also include permits for people who have an animal that is deemed vicious.

According to President Bellard, animals can be deemed vicious if they are "unprovoked or aggressive towards another animal or person. The key word is unprovoked." This means that if an animal aggressively attacks another animal or person without being provoked "then we have a problem with that."

President Bellard will host an open meeting in the Delta Grand at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and he is urging residents of St. Landry Parish to join the meeting and voice their opinions and concerns on the proposal.