Fredonia’s trustees barked “No” Tuesday to a proposed hike in the allowable number of dogs and cats per village household.

The board voted 4-0 against a local law to raise the number to four dogs and four cats. Trustees Ben Brauchler, Jon Espersen, Michelle Twichell and Paul Wandel voted. Trustee Nicole Siracuse was not there because she was at job training.

Brauchler first wanted to table the law, because he wanted language about kennels changed. However, Twichell said that she wanted to vote on the law so she could say “No” to it. Brauchler agreed to a vote.

“My personal feeling is, 95% of the population of the residents have no idea how many dogs they can have at this time. I don’t think anybody’s going to say, ‘Oh, we can have four dogs, I’m going to go out and buy extra dogs because now I can’… With that said, I’m going to vote nay,” Espersen said.

Earlier in the meeting, former Trustee James Lynden echoed Twichell’s comments to the OBSERVER last week when he said that housing in Fredonia is too close together to allow for four dogs per property.