A crowd of about 100 gathered at Warren County Fiscal Court on Friday to discuss an ordinance that would create county standards for animal rights.

Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said at the beginning of the forum that officials wouldn’t vote then, but they wanted to hear the public’s opinion about the ordinance.

Eighteen citizens voiced their views, with both sides of the debate well represented.

The audience was about evenly split, as half the crowd rose when supporters of the ordinance were asked to stand and the other half stood up in opposition.

Bardstown junior Amanda Hardeman and Lexington junior Megan Hensley were among those in support of the ordinance. They attended the forum after they were given a flier the day before.

“Animals are a very important part of my life, and it’s appalling that Warren County doesn’t have any animal rights laws,” Hardeman said.

The first to speak at the forum was Alvaton resident Jennifer Chiles, head of the group of citizens that wrote the ordinance.

She explained that although the city has an animal control ordinance, the rest of the county is only protected by state animal control laws, which Chiles said aren’t strict enough.

The ordinance focuses on making sure dogs and cats receive proper shelter, food and sanitation, areas that the state law doesn’t mention, Chiles said.

The ordinance would also require that owners have a license for all dogs and cats and make it illegal to tie a dog to a fixed point or to intentionally hurt a dog or cat.

Livestock were excluded from the most current draft of the ordinance.

Otherwise, farmers would be restricted from putting livestock in crates, which kept them from supporting the ordinance, Chiles said.

However, many farmers spoke out against the ordinance even with the exclusion of livestock.

Farmer Bobby Blair said he doesn’t think he should be required to register his dogs because they always stay on his property.

“Our Constitutional rights are what separates us from the rest of the world, and I want to make sure that’s not infringed upon,” Blair said.

Bowling Green resident Oscar Cherry, who also has land outside the city limits, said he didn’t like that the ordinance makes it illegal to attack animals even out of self-defense.

“If they’re after me or my children, then I will go after them, so I guess you’re just going to have to put me in jail,” Cherry said.

But many people spoke in support of the ordinance as well.

Suzanne Bloch lives in Mitchell Heights, which is outside of Bowling Green, and said the ordinance is needed because animal abuse is still a problem in small communities like hers.

Lorri Hare, director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society, spoke passionately in favor of the ordinance.

She showed pictures of abused animals that the Humane Society had to put to sleep because nothing could be done and asked the workers at the Humane Society to stand.

“How is it fair to make these employees deal with a problem that the county can solve with this ordinance?” Hare asked.

Debbie Shoulders, a representative from the South Central Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, said that she agrees that something needs to be done about cruelty issues, but that she is concerned about the interpretation of the ordinance and thinks it’s too specific.

She told about a veterinarian she knows who was approached by animal control when his dog was left outside in the rain, even though he had a carport for the dog to go under.

The dog just hadn’t chosen to move under the shelter, so it wasn’t a matter of neglect at all, she said.

Shoulders said she is worried that animal control won’t use common sense in cases like those when enforcing the ordinance.

After the two-hour forum, Buchanon told Chiles to work with those opposed to the ordinance and create a new draft before the ordinance would come to a vote, but no date was set as to when that might happen.

Reach Laurel Wilson at news@chherald.com.