ESCANABA — No changes have been made to Escanaba’s animal ordinance despite concerns raised by an Escanaba woman that limits on the number of dogs that can be kept in a home could prevent foster homes from taking in animals from the Delta Animal Shelter.

The issue was first raised last month, when resident Kathy Woodbury approached the council saying she had been visited by an Escanaba Public Safety officer for violating the city’s animal ordinance while fostering dogs that were seized from an alleged puppy mill in Maple Ridge Township. Woodbury, who said she and her husband had been long-time fosterers of animals from the shelter, had dogs of their own, which pushed them above the legal limit of four dogs over the age of four months in a single residence.

“We’ve been in this home for 16 years and we’ve never had a problem with any of this, but under the current ordinance it states that we would not be able to foster because we own four dogs,” Woodbury told the council at the Feb. 4 meeting.

While the council had mixed feelings on whether or not it was appropriate to adjust the ordinance in February, both Escanaba Public Safety and the Delta Animal Shelter were quick to say the ordinance should not be adjusted.

“The Delta Animal Shelter has created an internal policy to not send any foster animals to homes above the amount in the city (or) county ordinances going forward. It was not ever our intention to put foster people in noncompliance. I do not think the ordinance should be changed. There could be too much room for abuse or manipulation but people not affiliated (with) nor overseen by our organization. Changing the ordinance will also not resolve civil disputes between neighbors. We honor the ordinance as it stands,” Council Member Peggy O’Connell read from an email attributed to Delta Animal Shelter Manager Sue Garland during the February meeting.

In an effort to better understand the issue, City Manager Patrick Jordan and Council Member Ralph Blasier, who also sits on the shelter’s board and said he would not vote on the issue, met with Gartland and Escanaba Public Safety Director Rob LaMarche. Both Gartland and LaMarche were still of the opinion the ordinance should go unchanged.

“Looking at this whole thing, kind of holistically, this is a matter of our ordinance. This isn’t an animal shelter thing, this is our ordinance. The chief and I don’t feel that any changes are warranted,” said Jordan said during Thursday’s regular city council meeting. “The internal controls that the animals shelter uses are more than sufficient and the ordinance that we have in place is sufficient, and I’ve always felt that when you have an extreme situation — a rare, extreme situation — come along and you pass policy based on that rare, extreme situation, you get bad policy.”