Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Monday, March 19, 2007

Dog owner takes on town’s pet ordinance

By JOE ORSO | La Crosse Tribune

Eleanor Herrick is meeting with an attorney today to explore what legal action she can take to keep more than two dogs at a home in the town of Holland.

On Friday, she had made plans to sell five of her seven dogs in order to be legal under the town’s dog ordinance, but changed her mind over the weekend.

“It has pretty much ripped my heart out,” said Herrick, 42, who attended two recent town board meetings in an effort to find a way to keep all of her seven dogs. “In a lot of ways it’s like having kids taken, which isn’t a fair comparison to people who have actually lost children, but it hurts.”

In 2005, Herrick moved from Isanti, Minn., back to the home where she grew up to take care of her mother, who had lymphoma and needed a bone marrow transplant.

She brought her miniature schnauzer and six Labrador retrievers, which joined her mother’s Tibetan Spaniel in the home at W 7421 Kip St., Holmen, Wis. The eight dogs are indoor dogs and three of Herrick’s were rescued dogs, one after Hurricane Katrina.

When she was updating her dogs’ shots this winter, she was told about the dog ordinance, which limits dogs older than five months to two per individual or family living together. Anyone wishing to house three or more dogs must apply for a conditional-use permit from the county of La Crosse, which Herrick did in January.

“People didn’t realize I had dogs until they got a note from the county,” Herrick said. Neighbors “protested on the basis of potential noise and potential odor. They had been living next to these dogs

without any knowledge of noise or odor for 14 months.”

Herrick, who trains and competes her personal dogs, said while she didn’t seek to set up a breeding and training facility implied by the permit, she was willing to do so to keep her dogs.

But at a board meeting Wednesday, March 14, supervisors Kathy Dummer, Jim Lakey and Jim Halvorson voted down a motion by supervisor David Carlson to allow Herrick to register her four personal dogs and get rid of her three rescued dogs within 60 days.

Although six people in the township legally own three dogs, their variances were granted before a meeting on June 9, 2004, when that board passed a motion to stop considering variances on the dog ordinance. The decision, said Marilyn Pedretti, town clerk, happened after an influx of requests for variances.

“The current conditions truly create criminals out of responsible dog owners,” Herrick, a nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Winona, said at the March 14 meeting.

George Hammes, town chair, said in about a year and a half, no one had complained about Herrick’s dogs.

“Personally I think we should review our dog ordinance,” Hammes said. He plans to create a committee of board members and citizens to review the dog ordinance, and said Herrick would be a good candidate for that committee.

Dummer expressed concerns that since the ordinance allows for two dogs, liability would rest with the town if they allow more than that.

“Once we get to more than two animals, the problems that can arise do arise,” Halvorson said.

Herrick said some of her dogs are now at a commercial kennel.

She said the town board members “need to remember that their roles have real effects on real people’s lives.”

The Town of Holland has about 700 dogs, said Marie Dummer, town treasurer.

Joe Orso can be reached at (608) 791-8429 or jorso@lacrossetribune.com.