Gaston County’s getting tougher on people with violent dogs.

As of this week, owners of dogs that attack people or pets could be forced to maintain at least $100,000 in liability insurance — but police say that’s not an automatic penalty.

Gaston County Police Capt. Reid Rollins, who oversees Animal Care and Enforcement officers, said the insurance requirement and other penalties would be applied on an individual basis.

“These things are not going to be automatically attached,” Rollins said. “It’s going to be case-specific when we go through investigations and hearings on the dangerous dogs.”

Such insurance would benefit anyone “who suffers damages, injury or death” caused by the dog.

In order for a dog to be deemed dangerous in Gaston County, it has to inflict a serious bite on a person, kill or severely injure away from the dog owner’s property, or approach someone “in a terrorizing manner” away from the dog owner’s property. Rollins said that last category is rarely used, and that serious bites are considered ones that break bones, lacerate skin, require hospitalization or cosmetic surgery.

Gastonia Township Commissioner Tom Keigher sponsored the resolution to bolster the ordinance, which was approved on a second reading.

A push to strengthen the ordinance came last year after a small dog named Buster was killed by larger roaming dogs in Gastonia’s Gardner Park neighborhood. Several residents from the neighborhood came to a Board of Commissioners meeting in October and asked for stronger rules — the owner of the offending dogs had previously been cited by Animal Care and Enforcement.

“It very well could have been toddlers — little kids — out there in the street that couldn’t fend for themselves,” Keigher said earlier this year. “... There are so many people that probably shouldn’t have animals. They are irresponsible, and these new actions are aimed at basically making owners more responsible for their animals.”

As the ordinance was previously written, Animal Care and Enforcement could place restrictions on owners of dangerous dogs, such as requiring the owner to keep the animal fenced and posting a “beware of dog” sign on their property. Owners can also be required to spay or neuter the dog and told to keep it on a muzzle when off their property. Animal Care and Enforcement also has the ability to impound the dog until the owner meets those requirements.

That’s all still in effect, but with the new rules, someone whose dog is deemed dangerous by Animal Care and Enforcement must comply within 30 days or the animal will be impounded at the owner’s expense.

“If the owner fails to pay for the impoundment fees or complete the ordered preventative measures within the allotted time, the animal may be impounded and disposed of by Gaston County to include options of adoption, rescue, euthanasia, or any other measure deemed appropriate by the county,” reads a change to the ordinance.

Owners of dogs that have been declared dangerous can appeal the designation to the Animal Care and Enforcement Advisory Board.

Even though the county has the authority to euthanize dangerous dogs, Rollins said staff tries to get the animals re-housed through rescue groups.

“Euthanasia is the last resort for us,” Rollins said, adding that rate of euthanasia was about 16 percent for all animals taken to the shelter. “That’s something we try to be very self-conscious about. Typically, that is for sick or injured animals.”

No breed-specific regulation has been introduced in Gaston County. Rollins says any type of dog can be deemed dangerous.

“A lot of these cases are pretty egregious,” Rollins said. “They’ve either killed an animal or created a pretty serious bite for a citizen. That’s where typically the ‘dangerous dog’ label is getting used.”

You can reach Dashiell Coleman at 704-869-1819 or on Twitter @DashiellColeman