Josie,

I approached this situation with Trooper Simasko when he was stationed here. If I recall correctly what I was told, about the only thing he can do is dispatch a dog, but ONLY if he himself catches a threat to property/life.

In general, the dog situation is a local law/citation issue, something the trooper can't enforce. He can only enforce it when that threat happens before his eyes, because then it moves into a state law/issue.

The Troopers can only enforce state laws, not local laws... that's why they cant enforce our speed limit but can issue DUIs.. DUI's are a state law, speed limit is a local law.

The problem is a few fold..... needing an animal control officer who can enforce the rule/law around dogs here hand out/enforce/collect the fines/citations. Neither enforcing the law or handing out/collecting fines is easy work and it can often be a problem if you have to deal with friends, neighbors or family... and then small town politics of being fair/even and not playing favorites comes into question.

That is the case in any small Alaska village.

I do agree the dog situation can be very troublesome at times and my unofficial 2 cents is that if someone or a few someones want to do something about it, email miki, our city clerk, clerk@cityofmcgrath.org ask to be put on the agenda at an upcoming city meeting and bring it up there to get the ball rolling.

Probably not the answer everyone would've liked, but with my very basic understanding of how things work, thats the proper way things need to be done to effect long term change and not just a bubble of compliance that pops shortly thereafter and we're back to our old ways.