Fairbanks animal control can't take an abused animal. A rule change would let it.

Fairbanks North Star Borough animal control officers can't permanently remove an animal from an owner who refuses to care for it humanely. Their only tools are education, assistance, a citation, or a call to police. "Fines are our only punitive action for failure to comply with code requirements," staff wrote in materials prepared for the borough's Animal Control Commission.

That gap is what a proposed change to borough code aims to close. The commission meets Monday to work through a draft forfeiture provision that would, for the first time, let the borough take ownership of an animal — and then adopt it out or euthanize it — in specific cases.

As the code stands, animal control has no way to seize an animal simply because it's being abused or neglected; the only existing paths are an owner surrendering it or abandoning it. "The current code fails to provide adequate ways for an animal to be impounded," wrote Raeanne Ross, the borough's lead animal control officer, and fails to let the borough take firm ownership of one.

The draft would allow forfeiture in seven situations — among them a cruelty conviction, a court order, or an owner failing to reclaim an animal held in protective custody within 10 business days when no court case has been filed. It also proposes requiring animal-care professionals to report cruelty, allowing short-term impoundment for an animal's own welfare, and creating a certification for properties that keep large numbers of animals. Ross said the effort has been in the works since January, prompted in part by the severe cold of last winter.

Ross flagged one gap herself: the forfeiture rules may need an appeals process, since taking someone's animal ends a property right. National animal-law advocates say owners facing forfeiture are entitled to due process to protect their civil and property interests. The borough's draft doesn't yet spell that out. No final action is expected Monday.