Months after concerned residents first barked for a county animal ordinance, their concerns are still falling on deaf ears.

Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those situations in which someone is going to have to be seriously injured or even killed before outside pressure will spur our leaders into action.

Years ago, perhaps when only a few people lived clustered together in county neighborhoods, such regulations may not have been as necessary as today. In a purely rural area, having ordinances that make the place more civilized may seem overkill. But the county has changed along with our society.

Today, parts of the county are nearly as populated as parts of the city of Natchez, yet we&8217;re still holding onto the belief that laws &8212; or a lack thereof &8212; from 50 or 60 years ago will still fit all our current needs. Not true.

No one is truly in charge of handling animal problems. The sheriff&8217;s office doesn&8217;t want to bother; they&8217;ve got &8220;real&8221; crimes to fight. But they&8217;d tackle the issue if they had an actual law to enforce. At present they cannot enforce something that doesn&8217;t exist.

A number of residents oppose the mere notion of government regulation &8212; even when that regulation&8217;s intent is to protect the life and limb of another resident.

Your &8220;rights&8221; diminish when your animal becomes a menace in the neighborhood.

We need to face the issue now and resolve it before the &8220;bark&8221; over the problem becomes a deadly &8220;bite.&8221;