San Diego County dog owners are one step closer to being able to send their pets to rattlesnake-avoidance training after County supervisors approved the first reading of new ordinance changes Wednesday.
The County’s current ordinance forbids owning venomous reptiles in the unincorporated areas of the county, which means the training is also prohibited.
The new ordinance would exempt the businesses providing the trainings from prohibition as long as they are a registered California corporation, sole proprietorship or partnership in good standing and have commercial general liability insurance of at least $1 million.
The proposed ordinance change originally called for $100,000 in liability insurance, but supervisors amended the amount to $1 million. They also added sole proprietorships to the list of eligible training businesses during deliberations.
The business will also be required to provide proof of compliance with the new ordinance to any animal control officer or law enforcement official upon request.
Supervisors Horn and Jacob brought the original idea to the Board for consideration after businesses and pet owners said they wanted this kind of training to be available in the county.
The motion was approved 4-1 with Supervisors Ron Roberts, Greg Cox, Bill Horn and Dianne Jacob voting in favor and Supervisor Pam Slater-Price opposed.
The second reading of the ordinance change will be on Dec. 4, and would go into effect on Jan. 3, 2013.
