The Hanson Board of Health has set aside a proposal for a strict set of animal husbandry regulations proposed last fall, instead recommending the adoption of new horse regulations – with a few changes – proposed by a committee of horse owners drawn up in 2010.

The amended horse regulations have been posted on the town’s Web site (hanson-ma.gov and click on Horse Regulations link) and will be discussed in a hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7 in the second floor meeting room at Town Hall.

The main revisions involve an increase in fines for violations to $25, innocculations and requiring one acre of useable land per horse or other large animal. For a person who owns a house on a one-acre lot, that would not be enough land to raise a horse, for example. Other provisions, outlining required fence lines, construction for barns, sanitation and health care of animals are unchanged from the recommendations of the original committee of horse owners.

In the meantime, a group of farming families in town met at the Senior Center Tuesday night to proceed with plans to support the formation of an agricultural commission based on a similar panel in Middleboro. A petition is now being circulated to support a Town Meeting warrant article to form the commission.

“Said commission shall serve as facilitators for encouraging the pursuit of agriculture in Hanson and shall promote agricultural-based economic activities in town,” the petition reads.

About two dozen Hanson residents who raise horses, fowl, cattle or other farm animals turned out at a Board of Health hearing Nov. 22 to oppose the now-void proposal for new animal control regulations that would have limited the number of animals a person could raise — other than dogs and cats — based on acreage. Permit fees, of $25 per animal, would have been channeled into the general fund were to pay for administrative costs.

The proposed change had stemmed from a handful of resident complaints regarding livestock over the past few years and “inter-neighborhood disputes that cost the town tens of thousands of dollars,” Board of Health member Tom Constantine said at the November meeting.

Currently only horses and swine are covered by specific regulations. Last winter, a committee of equine owners worked to amend the horse regulations, but those changes were never adopted.

Ten signatures are required by March 2 to get the article on the warrant.

“Middleboro had done one, I said ‘Why reinvent the wheel?’” said meeting organizer Nancy Cappellini, Hanson’s library director whose family raises Hereford cattle at Triple S Farm. “A lot of towns have them. I would be a commission appointed by the selectmen and they would work with the other boards in town if there was a complaint and they would try to resolve it.”

She added the commission would also work on forming right-to-farm bylaws for the town. Cappellini has also begun researching current right-to-farm bylaws based on a template provided by the state Attorney General’s office.

The template provides definitions of what constitutes a farm and agriculture, provides a right-to-farm declaration and disclosure notification of prospective homebuyers looking in Hanson that the community conserves and protects agricultural land for production of food and other agricultural products.

“If you want to sell your house, you want to let that person know this is a farming community and that there will be farming activities going on,” she said. “But the first step is to do this [form the commission].”