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Several citizens came before the West Point City Council last week to discuss an alleged case of animal abuse in the community.

Jasmine Garrett said a neighbor’s dog is chained up year-round, which violates a city ordinance, and she’s asking that something be done. Garrett said every time she’d call the police, the dogs were seemingly moved inside, meaning no citation was issued.

In our eyes, this is sort of like catching someone throwing a piece of litter out a car window. Ideally, the police department would need to catch someone in the act with their dogs outside tied up, and that hasn’t happened. We have no idea what’s going on in the specific case that Garrett is referencing, but it’s clear that it deserves more investigation, as does any incident like this where an animal may be tethered.

Outside of that one case, we think it’s important that city ordinances — animal related or not — need to be enforced and regulated.

Of course, it’s much easier to write that than to do it, but at the end of the day, that’s the purpose of the ordinance.

It’s important that people are following the laws, especially for our four-legged friends, who can’t speak up for themselves.

All of the local municipalities have strengthened their animal laws in recent years, mostly due to citizens who are speaking up to try to protect their dogs. That’s a great thing, and it shows the power of citizens working together to solve a problem.