On 28 June 09, this Lead Investigative Reporter was personally contacted by an individual who requested anonymity and advised the following about animal control in Mills County, Iowa:

On this same date, a neighbor was visited by an officer with the Mills County Sheriff Department regarding a complaint of a dog at large chasing a horse. Upon contact with the neighbor the deputy (not named) allegedly informed the neighbor that any dog running loose off the property had better be licensed per a new animal ordinance in Mills County or the Deputy could issue a citation for dogs at large and confiscate them, sending them to the "ARF" animal rescue shelter. The Deputy allegedly continued stating, “a dog license would have to be purchased from the ‘ARF’ animal shelter”.

The person requesting anonymity advised this Investigator they were unaware of any such ordinance or of any animal shelter in Mills County, and this was the first they had heard of it from the neighbor or Deputy Sheriff. This Investigator was asked to investigate whether Mills County, Iowa in deed has this type of ordinance or animal shelter in force now.

Upon receiving this information, this Investigative Reporter conducted an inquiry into the validity of this ordinance complaint and the following information was disclosed. A review of the following official Mills County, Iowa web site http://www.millscoia.us/announcements.htm does in fact identify a newly proposed animal care and control ordinance dated from 2008 in PDF format.

The last update to the proposed animal control ordinance appears to be 2 June 2008 and it appears to be unsigned or approved in the PDF document. However, the proposal notification on the Mills County, Iowa web site dated 28 June 2009, reflects this animal control proposal is renewed and is now a current animal care and control county ordinance proposal. 

You can read the entire animal care and control proposal of 16 pages for Mills County, Iowa at the following link:

http://www.millscoia.us/publicnotices_announcements/Ordinance08-03_AnimalCareandControl.pdf

The complainant who spoke to this Investigative Reporter stated the following about this new animal control information 'coming to light' in Mills County, Iowa:

"It could happen any time," they said. "I'll just be surprised if it doesn't."

Further Investigative inquiries are being conducted to obtain more up to date information on the status of this proposed animal care and control ordinance posted on Mills County, Iowa web site as of 28 June 09.

Stay tuned. This appears to be proposed "under the table" from the county citizen public's view.

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