Mission Viejo Municipal Code Art. 1 Generally

(a) No person owning or having charge, care, custody, or control of any dog shall cause or permit, either willfully or through failure to exercise due care or control, any such dog to be upon any private property unless such dog is restrained thereon by a fence, wall, substantial chain, leash not exceeding six feet in length, other appropriate physical restraint, or is under the charge of a person competent to exercise care, custody, and control over such dog.

(b) No person owning or having charge, care, custody, or control of any dog shall cause or permit, either willfully or through failure to exercise due care or control, any such dog to be upon any public property unless such dog be restrained by a substantial chain, or leash not exceeding six feet in length, and is under the charge of a person competent to exercise care, custody, and control over such dog, unless the owner or operator of such public property grants written permission for such dog to be on such property without such chain or leash.

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-45), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

No person having the charge of any dog, except a blind person with a guide or service dog, shall permit the dog, under any circumstances to be on or within the public school property. This section, however, does not prohibit the use of dogs on school property for teaching or other school uses, when approved by the school officials.

(Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

Every person owning or having charge of any female cat or dog shall strictly confine such animal during its breeding season (i.e., while it is in heat) in a building or other enclosure adequate to keep such cat or dog confined.

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-47), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

(a) No person shall allow, upon any premises owned, occupied, or controlled by such a person, any animal to cause a nuisance. This includes, but is not limited to, disruptive sound created by barking, howling, crying, neighing, braying or making other sounds that unreasonably disturb other persons in the comfortable enjoyment of their life or property. Such activity is hereby deemed a nuisance.

(b) A dog shall not be deemed a nuisance if, at any time the dog is making noise, a person is trespassing or threatening to trespass upon the private property where the dog is situated, or when the dog is being teased or provoked or protecting person(s) or property.

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-48), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 05-234, § 20, 9-6-05; Ord. No. 08-270, § 2, 7-7-08; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

Upon receiving a complaint alleging an animal nuisance as described in section 10.01.209, the animal services staff shall adhere to the following procedures:

(a) Upon receipt by the animal services department of a first complaint, animal services staff will send a letter informing the responsible person about the complaint.

(b) For purposes of this article, a "responsible person" is any of the following:

(1) A person who allows a violation of or alleged violation of section 10.01.209 to exist, whether through willful action, failure to act, or failure to exercise proper control over an animal.

(2) A person whose agent, employee, or independent contractor allows a violation to exist, whether through willful action, failure to act, or failure to exercise proper control over an animal.

(3) A person who is the owner of, or a lessee or sublessee with the current right of possession of and/or control over the, real property in or upon which an alleged violation occurs; or

(4) A person includes a natural person or legal entity, including the owners, majority stockholders, corporate officers, trustees, or general partners of a legal entity.

(5) There may be more than one responsible person for a violation(s).

(c) Upon receipt by the animal services department of a second complaint regarding an animal for which a first notice has been sent, provided at least ten days but no more than 30 days have elapsed from the date of the first letter sent by animal services staff pursuant to subsection (a) above, an animal services officer will be dispatched to issue a notice to comply and to advise the responsible person about possible solutions to rectify the nuisance.

(d) Upon receipt by the animal services department of a third complaint between ten and 30 days after the date of a second complaint pursuant to subsection (b) above, animal services staff will ask the complainant to obtain, complete and return to the department a formal witness statement from within ten days of request.

(e) Upon receipt of a formal witness statement form, if the director or his or her designee finds the animal owner to be in violation of section 10.01.209, the department will issue an animal nuisance citation pursuant to division 4 of this chapter in an amount set forth in the animal nuisance citation schedule established in section 10.01.216.

(f) Animal nuisance citations may be contested pursuant to the provisions of division 4 of this chapter.

(Ord. No. 05-234, § 21, 9-6-05; Ord. No. 08-270, § 3, 7-7-08; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17; Ord. No. 17-324, § 28, 9-12-17)

No person owning or having care, custody, or control of any animal shall permit, either willfully or through failure to exercise proper control, such animal to trespass or be upon any private property of another person without the consent of such person.

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-49), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

A person having custody of any dog shall not permit, either willfully or through failure to exercise due care or control, any such dog to defecate or urinate upon:

(1) A public sidewalk or parkway comprising the area between the street and sidewalk.

(2) The floor of any common hall in any apartment house, tenement house, motel or other multiple dwelling.

(3) Any entranceway, stairway or wall immediately abutting on a public sidewalk.

(4) The floor of any theatre, shop, store, office building or other building used by the public.

(5) Any city park or beach. The person having custody of any dog shall immediately remove any feces deposited by such dog.

(6) Any place where the public's health, safety and welfare of any person(s).

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-50), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

Fines for animal nuisance citations shall be as follows:

Fine for first citation issued (per citation) .....$300.00

Fine for second citation within the same 12-month period .....$350.00

Fine for third citation within the same 12-month period .....$400.00

Fine for fourth citation within the same 12-month period .....$450.00

Fine for fifth citation within the same 12-month period .....$500.00

Fine for sixth and subsequent citation issued within the same 12-month period .....$550.00

Any fine not paid within 15 days of due date shall be calculated as follows: the amount of the appropriate fine listed above added to a late penalty in the same amount as the fine such that the total amount due is double the unpaid fine amount.

(Ord. No. 17-324, § 29, 9-12-17)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 17-324, § 29, adopted Sep. 12, 2017, amended § 10.01.216 in its entirety to read as herein set out. Former § 10.01.216 pertained to administrative hearing and derived from Ord. No. 08-270, § 4, adopted July 7, 2008; and Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), adopted Jan. 10, 2017.

(a) Dog owners and custodians of dogs shall, at all times, take all reasonable precautions to prevent their dogs from biting, attacking or attempting to bite any person or from interfering with the lawful use of public or private property. It shall be unlawful for any person to fail to comply with this subsection (a).

(b) Any person owning or having custody or control of a vicious dog commits a violation of this chapter if, as a result of that person's failure to exercise ordinary care, the dog bites, attacks, wounds or otherwise injures or kills a human being and the owner or custodian knew or should have known of the vicious or dangerous nature of the dog.

(c) Nothing in this section shall authorize the bringing of a criminal action pursuant to a violation of subsection (a) or (b) of this section if the bite, attack, attempted bite, injury or threat was sustained by a person who, at the time, was committing a willful trespass upon the premises occupied by the owner or custodian of the dog; or was committing or attempting to commit a crime upon the premises occupied by the owner or custodian of the dog; or was teasing, tormenting, abusing or assaulting the dog or who has, in the past, teased, tormented, abused or assaulted the dog.

(d) Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not more than six months or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(Ord. No. 88-12, § 3(4-1-51), 6-27-88; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)

Nothing in this article [chapter] shall prevent the city council from ordering the city attorney to commence a civil or criminal proceeding to abate a public nuisance as an alternative to the procedures set forth in this article [chapter}.

(Ord. No. 08-270, § 5, 7-7-08; Ord. No. 17-322, § 1(Exh. A), 1-10-17)