It shall be unlawful to set off or use any fireworks that result in an injury to any animal caused by direct contact with the fireworks or if the animal injured itself from fear of the fireworks.
Sounds like a decent ordinance. If it could be enforced, it would be. Problem is, it has no parallel in state code that we can find. Also, we tested this and the county can not nor will not enforce it. What they have done in the past is send out Sheriff's deputies to try and witness an event. The deputies only stay so long and if they do not see anything themselves, there is nothing they say that they can do about it.
In other times, officials have instead sought to attack those who reported the issues. ??? No joke. Dig through this site and you will eventually find confirmation on this. (Clue, go back a few years and dig through posts after the 4th of July). It's hard to argue against an ordinance that for all intents and purposes seems very logical and in the best interests of the people. But when it has no basis in state code, it has no business being there in the county ordinances. It's once again Gloucester officials making up their own nanny state rules at their own whim and pleasure which do not serve the common good of the people even if it appears to.
Below is the link to the Virginia state codes as they apply to animals. Check for yourself to see if you find any parallel. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?
In less than one hour, the Gloucester Board of Supervisors meeting will begin. At this meeting, they will only be addressing one ordinance in violation of state code while there are many that remain in violation of state code and they are aware of a number of these violations. There are a lot of questions about these people voted in that we expected to represent us and instead have made it a choice to misrepresent us at so many levels.
