Pet license fees not impossible
Warren County Humane Society animal shelter advocates say it’s not all about the money.
In a lesser-known struggle that has taken a back stage to the immediate crisis of funding for the shelter, Humane Society officials say they would not want to return to continue the same routine of putting down thousands of animals per year even if they were to re-open with the assistance of the full amount of funds requested from county government.
Animal shelter officials want laws enacted that could encourage spaying and neutering of animals in conjunction with a pet licensing fee, Humane Society vice president Villa Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the idea is for owners of “unaltered” animals to pay a higher fee for such a license compared to a pet owner who had a pet, for instance, spayed or neutered.
She cited the 4,000 animals put down at the local shelter in the last year as a reason to do this as a prevention effort to reduce the pet population, related costs and emotional turmoil in the future. Shelter employees have said about 7,000 animals have been euthanized in the last 18 months.
“What we were basically looking at was trying to encourage people to have their animals fixed and we thought if we charged maybe $2 or $3 for licensing fees for altered pets and then considerably more for an unaltered pet each year,” Mitchell said.
“Some places I’ve looked at charge as much as $20 or $25 more. We wouldn’t necessarily have to do that, but there would be at least a significant difference. It would really encourage people – they could figure out that in two or three years they’ve spent a good bit registering that pet, when they could have spent $2 every year, which is not enough to really worry about.”
Funds raised from such a licensing proposal could go to supporting the shelter’s bottom line, helping some pay for spay and neutering pets, supporting cruelty investigation and fostering education in the schools.
“We’re never going to solve this problem if we don’t start with the children and teach them the proper attitude to have toward animals,” Mitchell said.
Though it would appear to be difficult to enact such a licensing law, the city, which is a separate body of government from county government, already has a little-known law establishing a licensing fee for dogs in the city. That law dates to 1967, according to city hall records.
The city’s old licensing fee policy, which was not connected to a spay or neuter program as the Humane Society is proposing, has not been enforced for the past several years after possibly falling out of favor as long ago as the late 80s.
Humane Society President Andy Anderson has said there are similar licensing laws related to spaying and neutering in governments located in 26 other states and also supports the proposal.
Although admitting details would need to be worked out, Mitchell said some county officials have had the licensing fee proposal in their hands since May and some have expressed interest in supporting it.
No official action has been taken, and as of late Friday, no more public county meetings had been set up to address the animal control situation in Warren County after shelter officials reported last week they would not take in any more animals due to lack of funds. There are about 20 animals left to be adopted at the shelter, which can be reached at 473-5720.