Daily Record photograph by Sarah Nader A dog climbed the door of its kennel Friday afternoon at the Rogers Animal Shelter at 2935 W. Oak St. The shelter is currently housing 47 dogs.
BENTONVILLE - Benton County has a problem with stray and abandoned dogs, Sheriff Keith Ferguson announced during Thursday's Quorum Court meeting.
"Animal calls are becoming a constant, and they are getting to be overwhelming throughout the county," Ferguson said.
When the county is called out on a dog call, an officer investigates and does his best to find the owner of the animal, but more often than not, the dogs are abandoned with no collars, no tags and no way of identifying the owners, Ferguson said.
When the county is unable to identify dogs' owners," our only option is to take them to the pound," Ferguson said. Therein lies the problem. All three animal shelters in Benton County - in Bella Vista, Rogers and Siloam Springs - are at capacity with dogs and cats.
"We are spending money to the tune of $ 70, 000 or $ 80, 000 a year just to house these dogs," Ferguson said, citing the need for the Sheriff's Office to have some way of tracking where the dogs belong.
"This is a priority, and it is out here facing us. We, as the county, are going to have to deal with this," Ferguson said.
One option Ferguson is exploring to help alleviate the problem of lost, stray and abandoned dogs throughout the county is to sponsor countywide microchipping days for dogs.
For the program, the county would purchase microchips. On selected Saturdays, those interested could schedule appointments with the Sheriff's Office to have microchips implanted in their dogs for free.
The microchips, which cost around $ 5 each, are inserted just under a dog's skin between the shoulder blades. The device contains information used to help locate a dog's owner when the dog becomes lost.
Microchipping the dogs would serve two functions. It would help return lost or stray dogs to their rightful owners, and the chips would act as a deterrent for anyone looking to abandon a dog in the county, Ferguson said.
Ferguson's property in the southeastern part of the county is a major dumping ground for unwanted dogs and cats. He said he and his wife have taken in many abandoned animals throughout the years.
"Every pet that we have had has been a dumped animal," Ferguson said.
Having pets microchipped will also allow deputies to issue citations to people who are found to be dumping the dogs.
"We need some type of preventative measure in place, and it would be cost effective for us to go in this route because the price of the implant and the price of the monitor would not be overwhelming to the county," Ferguson said.
Providing a way to reunite owners with lost pets would likely help alleviate the overcrowding pressures on the county's animal shelters as well.
The animal shelter in Siloam Springs has taken in 739 dogs and cats from within the city limits so far in 2008 alone, Don Clark, manager of the shelter said.
After a dog is taken to the shelter in Siloam Springs, it is held for five days and then put up for adoption. From there, the shelter holds the dogs and cats for as long as possible, contacting rescue groups to take in the dogs and working daily to adopt them. When the dogs cannot be adopted, the unfortunate reality is that they are put down, Clark said.
People abandoning their dogs and cats is a practice that is becoming much more prevalent, Clark said.
"We get a lot more calls from people wanting to surrender their dogs this year compared to last year," Clark said.
"The biggest problem is that people fail to understand the need to spay or neuter their pets. One statistic many people do not know is that one mother and her pups has the potential to produce 67, 000 offspring in their lifetime," Clark said.
The Siloam Springs Animal Shelter currently offers a 50 percent discount on the shelter's spay / neuter program. Anyone interested in the program may contact the shelter at 524-6535 to set up an appointment.
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