July 10 2015
CANISTEO, NY – Dog Control Officers from all over Steuben County were at the Canisteo Town Hall on Friday night, meeting with Steuben County officials. Investigator Eric Tyner, County Legislator Dan Farrand (R, Rathbone), and Assistant District Attorney Dave Wallace, listened to complaints from dog control officers from all over the county.
The main topic of discussion was about how dog control officers are frequently ignored when they issue a ticket. “I’ve got two people that I can think of right off the bat in my town, that I’ve issued tickets to them over the last three or four years,” said one dog control officer. “I finally told the town board, I’m not going to keep issuing tickets, because they simply don’t show up.” That dog control officer also said that it’s known to many from his town, that there are no consequences. “Everybody knows how word of mouth is. When you issue tickets to that many people and they just simply don’t appear, word gets around.”
Tyner, Wallace, Farrand
click photo above to see video
Farrand quoted a suggestion from Sheriff Dave Cole. “The sheriff mentioned at the Rathbone meeting, that if it needs be, we can do a one day sweep where we go out and pick up people who aren’t paying their fines and aren’t showing up for court,” Farrand said.
Investigator Tyner maintains that if word gets around that people are getting ticketed by the sheriff’s office for dog control violations, that it would quickly put an end to people ignoring dog control officers. “I think maybe it would send a message that if you get a summons from a court, I don’t care what it is, maybe you should show up,” Tyner told the dog control officers who were present.
