Williams Municipal Code Ch. 6.04 Definitions

Unless the text otherwise requires, the following terms and words used in this title shall have the meanings set out in this section:

"Animal" means any dog, cat, swine, livestock, wild animal, or fowl subject to regulation pursuant to this title.

"Animal control center" means the facilities provided by the city or county for the impounding and care of animals.

"Animal control officer" means the chief of police or his or her duly authorized assistants, contracted agency employees, and officers who are authorized and directed to enforce the provisions of this title and carry out the intent hereof.

"At large" means the presence of any animal when it is off the premises of its owner and not restrained by a leash or tether under the control of a person physically capable of retaining control of the animal, or when the animal is on the premises of its owner and not restrained by a leash, tether, fence, or other adequate enclosure sufficient to prevent ingress and egress of the animal or not under the control and in the immediate presence of its owner.

"Cat" means a member of species Felis catus.

"City" means the City of Williams.

"City administrator" means the Administrator of the City of Williams.

"County" means the County of Colusa.

"Domestic," when used to describe an animal, means adapted to life in intimate association with people and able to live and breed in a tame condition.

"Domestic fowl" means any common farm fowl including, but not limited to, turkeys, geese, chickens and ducks.

"Feral cat" means a cat that lives permanently outside of a domestic home and is not owned and cared for as a typical companion animal or pet, as a result of having been born feral, abandoned by an owner, or rendered homeless, wild or stray by any other means.

"Feral cat caregiver" means any person who:

1. Feeds feral cats, humanely traps feral cats, provides care, including shelter or medical care, to the feral cats, or any combination of the foregoing activities, and works in cooperation with a TNR partner permitted by the city; and

2. Is registered with a permitted TNR partner and has proof of such registration.

"Feral cat colony" or "colony" means a group of cats and the geographic location where that group typically live or where they forage or hunt for food, or are fed and generally cared for by a TNR partner by associated feral cat caregivers or by TNR individuals.

"Food" as well as "feeding" includes water.

"Health officer" means the health officer of the county or any of his or her duly authorized representatives.

"Hearing officer" means a hearing officer provided to the city by a nonprofit organization or governmental agency with whom the city has contracted to conduct hearings pursuant to this title. No hearing officer shall be compensated or evaluated, directly or indirectly, based upon the outcomes of any hearing.

"Impoundment" means the taking up and confining of an animal by the animal control officer in a manner consistent with recognized standards of humane treatment. Animals impounded pursuant to this title shall be impounded at the animal control center or at such other place as may be approved by the animal control officer for the impoundment of animals.

"Keep" means keep, harbor, maintain or permit to keep, harbor or maintain.

"Kennel" means either:

1. Any person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of keeping, harboring, breeding, buying or selling dogs or cats, or both; or

2. Any enclosure, premises, building, structure, lot or area, in which three or more dogs of at least four months of age are kept for commercial or noncommercial purposes.

The term "kennel" shall not include any animal shelter operated by a humane society, a municipal agency or its authorized agents, or a veterinary hospital operated by a veterinarian licensed by the State of California.

"Livestock" means any common farm animal, including, but not limited to, cows, horses, sheep and goats, but excluding domestic fowl and domestic swine.

"Owner" means a person, firm, partnership, corporation, associations, trust or organization of any kind, having an interest in, harboring or having control, custody or possession of, an animal.

"Person" means one or more individual human beings or any fictitious entity or entities.

"Premises" means any parcel(s) of property owned, leased, occupied, or under control of a person.

"TNR individual" means a person who is permitted by the city to engage in implementing the TNR program regulations and guidelines on the property of their primary residence without being affiliated with a TNR partner.

"TNR partner" means an organization permitted by the city to engage in implementing TNR via education, training, funding spay-neuter, providing traps, holding spay-neuter clinics, providing long-term colony care through volunteers or otherwise implementing TNR.

"Trap-neuter-return," also referred to as "TNR" is the practice whereby feral cats are humanely trapped by feral cat caregivers or TNR individuals, taken to a veterinary hospital or spay-neuter facility where they are sterilized and vaccinated, ear tipped, de-flead, and adopted or returned to their colony to be cared for until the end of their natural life.

"Trap-neuter-return program regulations and guidelines" or "TRN program regulations and guidelines" means the rules adopted by the city council allowing permitted organizations or individuals to undertake TNR activities, which rules include standards of care and guidelines for implementation activities.

"Vaccination" means the inoculation with an anti-rabies vaccine approved by, and administered in the manner prescribed by, the state department of public health.

"Wild animal" means any of the following:

1. Following members of the class Reptilia:

a. Order Ophidia (such as, but not limited to, racers, boas, water snakes and pythons over eight feet in length); and

b. Order Loricata (such as, but not limited to, alligators, caymans and crocodiles) over four feet in length.

2. Following members of the class Aves:

a. Order Falconiformes (such as, but not limited to, hawks, eagles and vultures which are not kept pursuant to federal or state permit); and

b. Subdivision Ratitae (such as, but not limited to, ostriches, rheas, cassowaries and emus);

3. Following members of the class Mammalia:

a. Order Carnivora, expressly excepting the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) and the domestic cat (Felis catus), but including, but not limited to, the family Felidae (such as ocelots, margays, tigers, jaguars, leopards and cougars), the family Canidae (such as wolves, dingos, coyotes and jackals); and

b. Order Marsupialia (such as kangaroos and opposums); and

c. Order Chiroptera (bats); and

d. Order Endentata (such as sloths, anteaters and armadillos); and

e. Order Proboscidea (elephants); and

f. Order Primata (including, but not limited to, monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas); and

g. Order Ungulata (expressly excluding domestic swine and any animal which is included in the definition of "livestock" of this chapter and including, but not limited to, nondomestic swine, antelope, deer, bison and camels).

4. Any nondomestic species when kept, maintained or harbored in such numbers or in such a manner as to constitute the likelihood of danger to the animals themselves, to human beings or to the property of human beings;

5. Any species of animal which is venomous to human beings, whether its venom is transmitted by bite, sting, touch or other means, except honey-producing bees.

(Ord. 154-07 § 3(part), 2007; Ord. No. 200-13, § 1(exh. A), 5-15-2013)