Posted Tuesday, March 3, 2020 3:11 pm

SHARPSBURG — Authorities are beginning to tighten the leash on dog owners with too many canines.

The town has a seldom-used law on the books that limits the number of adult dogs a resident is allowed to own. The magic number is three.

Police Chief Michael Thomas was on patrol Jan. 23 when he saw for himself a number of dogs running loose in the neighborhood.

Thomas charged the dogs’ owner with violating the regulation on the number of dogs allowed on his property, allowing dogs to run at large and being a public nuisance.

Gregory Cherry, 64, of Lincoln Street, has a court date set for later this month.

Thomas said Sharpsburg has had an issue of late of too many dogs running loose and it’s time to put a stop to it.

Thomas said Cherry’s dogs were jumping a 5-foot fence and running around the neighborhood.

Wilson County Animal Control tried to sedate and trap the dogs, but some are still running around loose.

Chapter 91 of the town’s code of ordinances states that “maintaining an excessive number of dogs on private property is detrimental to the health, safety and wellbeing of the citizens of Sharpsburg as well as the animals themselves.”

The ordinance calls for no more than three dogs older than 5 months to be kept on single-family residential lots smaller than 30,000 square feet.

The rule doesn’t prevent landlords from imposing more restrictive limits on their properties.