Mike Wolanin | The Republic Bartholomew County Commissioner Tony London takes a break while looking over agenda items before a county commissioners meeting in the Bartholomew County Governmental Office Building in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Jan. 12, 2026.
The Bartholomew County commissioners amended a 2021 animal control ordinance on Monday.
“Ninety-nine percent of animal owners take excellent care of their animals and go above and beyond. But there are some that just make poor, poor decisions,” Commissioner Tony London said. “We’re trying to make it so that they take these things seriously and they make better decisions.”
London said that the commissioners will look at the ordinance every so often to see when it falls out of date and decided that this year, the ordinance needed some changes.
One of the major changes is in the fines for ordinance violations.
In 2021, the commissioners raised the fines from $35 to $100. On Monday, they brought the fines for serious offenses up even higher.
- Large dog violation, noise complaint, confinement or trespass, $100
- Bites and injuries, vicious animals, not providing food or shelter, ill treatment/abandonment, $250
- Beating, confinement resulting in injury, poisoning and death of a dog, $500
The commissioners also extended the deadline for paying the fine from five days to 15 days.
Another big change in the ordinance came from the wording regarding felines. London said that most felines picked up by animal control are feral cats, not domestic cats. He said that feral cats are considered wildlife, therefore they fall out of animal control’s scope of work.
The last amendment is that ordinances with penalties must be advertised two times after they have been passed seven days apart. These ordinance changes would then be effective immediately after the second advertisement on April 15.
