LIVERMORE – Residents voted 34-19 Wednesday to adopt an ordinance that puts restrictions on court-declared dangerous dogs and requires the owner of such an animal to have $300,000 in liability insurance.

Only a few questions were asked about the ordinance that mirrors the state’s law except for being stricter in a few areas. The 15-minute special town meeting was moderated by resident-lawyer Clint Boothby.

The ordinance does not target breeds of dogs, just animals declared dangerous by a court of law.

Fourteen-year-old Anna Sanborn watched as voters raised their hands in favor of the ordinance she initiated and developed after her family’s 11 prize-winning goats were attacked by pit bulls last year at her Livermore home. Two of those goats died.

Sanborn was instrumental in strengthening the state’s dangerous dog law earlier this year. It now includes attacks on livestock.

A dangerous dog defined by state law, means a dog that bites an individual who is not trespassing on the dog owner’s or keeper’s premises at the time of the bite or a dog that causes a reasonable and prudent person who is not on the dog owner’s or keeper’s premises and is acting in a reasonable and non aggressive manner to fear imminent bodily injury by assaulting or threatening to assault that individual’s domestic animal or live stock, Selectperson John Wakefield read from the law.

Selectmen’s Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub said the ordinance differs from the state law in three areas. It prohibits transfer of the dangerous dog, requires special restraint including outlining where the animal could be kept in secure enclosures on the property, and requires owners of dangerous dogs to have $300,000 in liability insurance to cover bodily injury or death of any person or animal, or for property damages, resulting from the keeping of the dangerous dog.

The insurance would need to be obtained within five days of the court finding that a dog is dangerous.

“I’m very excited because I’ve gone a long way through the process so with everything going on I feel very confident in myself,” Sanborn said after the the meeting.