Fair Lawn Officials Consider Responsible Pet Ownership Committee

A new committee may help educate Fair Lawn dog owners and provide them with resources to assist them in being responsible pet owners.

Jeffrey Ball of the New Jersey Federation of Dog Clubs spoke about the proposal to start a responsible pet ownership committee during the Fair Lawn Council meeting last week. Residents previously discussed the idea after the council approved a dangerous dog law this summer.

The committee would help educate residents about dog ownership and bring in resources like microchips to identify lost pets, much like a similar committee set up in Ridgewood earlier this year.

Ridgewood's committee has put on programs about dog behavior and donated microchip scanners to the police department which already helped return several lost dogs, Ball said. The committee would be made up of volunteer Fair Lawn residents and not cost the town any money, he said.

"If you prevent two dog bites and it costs the town nothing, it was successful," Ball said.

Officials said they would look further into the creation of the committee, with a possible start date of January 1.