Efforts to raise the license fee for unspayed and unneutered dogs and cats could raise $ 3 million for Fayetteville’s Animal Shelter as well as the ire of pet owners and breeders.
Annual license fees for dogs and cats which have not been spayed or neutered will jump from $ 15 to $ 75 if a proposal being considered by the newly formed animal ordinance review committee is eventually approved by the Fayetteville City Council.
The fee to license spayed and neutered dogs and cats is just $ 5 now and would stay that way.
“ It’s a motivational tool, ” Jill Hatfield, director of animal services, said Friday, explaining why she and committee members support the steep increase and the difference in the fee amounts.
The object, she said, is to get the animals sterilized.
“ Maybe a hundred-dollar pop one year to get it neutered or you come up with $ 75 every year, ” she said. “ It’s certainly economically beneficial to you to spay and neuter. We’re not mandating it; we’re giving you a choice. ”
Besides generating enough money to potentially add a code enforcement officer to the Animal Shelter staff, the change could, over time, reduce the number of animals that need to be shel- tered, reduce the need for staff to care for shelter animals, and eventually reduce the need for euthanasia because of overcrowding.
On the animal welfare side of the equation, sterilization offers overwhelming health and behavioral benefits, according to Hatfield.
She said sterilized dogs stray less, dogs and cats are less aggressive, male cats don’t spray and there are other health benefits for the animals.
Of the 328 dog bites reported in Fayetteville since 2000, 61 involved sterilized dogs and 267 were from intact dogs, according to an Animal Shelter report.
Other cities and municipalities that have ordinances that encourage spaying and neutering are seeing a huge decrease in the animal population, Hatfield said.
The 2007 budget proposal is $ 850, 000 for the three Animal Services programs: animal control and patrol, shelter operation, clinic and veterinarian service.
Hatfield estimates the cost is about $ 75 per five-day stay for each animal held. Fayetteville’s Animal Shelter had 117 dogs and cats behind its doors Thursday.
When more animals are spayed and neutered, it can mean fewer animals to care for and lower cost to the city, according to Hatfield.
She estimates the city has, statistically, about 85, 000 dogs and cats.
“ I’m going to be generous and say half of them are spayed or neutered. In the first year, if we had that code enforcement officer, that’s $ 3 million.
“ Are we going to get to all of those animals ? No. But there’s a huge majority of animals in this city that are not licensed and are not spayed or neutered, ” she said.
Only about 2 percent of the city’s dogs are licensed. That number, according to Hatfield, is consistent with other cities that do not have an animal control officer whose main emphasis is code enforcement.
Cities that have code enforcement officers, tend to reach the 90 percentiles for licensing, she said.
Hatfield acknowledged that animal control will never see a lot of the city’s animals that are well taken care of, are quiet and never get out.
“ But, we do see the other ones that run out the door, or dig under the fence, or jump it, or get out of the car, ” she said.
A code enforcement officer’s main duty, said Hatfield, would be to go door-to-door to look for vicious and dangerous animals, and to make sure pets are licensed and current on rabies shots. That, in turn, should bring more money to the city.
The ordinance review committee backed that use of the license fee money if the fee is approved. It could also be used to help fund the city’s low-cost spay and neuter program.
Hatfield said the proof this ordinance can work can be found on the east and west coasts where they can keep animals longer for adoptions and are euthanizing far less because they adopted these kinds of rules years ago.
“ When they euthanize on the east and west coast, they euthanize because the animal is unsafe for the public. Not because they’ve run out of room and not because there’s not enough homes. In fact, what we’re seeing now is shelters in mid-America are doing a lot of transporting of animals to the east and west coasts. Puppies are in high demand. You will not see puppies in a shelter on the east and west coasts, ” she said.
One of the problems locally, Hatfield said, are people who think they’re going to make big money on a litter of cute Labrador puppies. Without genealogical papers, the puppies sell for less and may not sell at all. Meanwhile, the puppies keep growing and eating and growing until the owner brings them to the shelter.
“ John Doe doesn’t know there’s a huge, huge surplus of Lab dogs at this point and he doesn’t know anything about the euthanasia of animals at the shelter, ” she said.
If a person brings in six, maybe three will get adopted, she said in her example.
“ The other three, what do we get to do with them ? They’ve grown. They’re in adolescent stage. They’re awkward. They’re bouncy. They’re Labs. They’re going to be euthanized. How needless was that ? ” she asked.
Hatfield said people think of mutts and canine mixes when they think of the shelter. They don’t realize that today’s shelters have pure bred dogs.
“ Now, do we know that for sure ? No. But, by looking at them, they’re purebred. Boxers ? Yeah, we got them. Golden Retrievers, we’ve got them. We’ve got Lhasas, we’ve got Great Pyrenees, we’ve got Schnauzers. We still get the jumble, bumble mix dogs; but we also get the purebreds in here, ” she said. “ There just needs to be more spaying and neutering. ”
Hatfield said she knows that sometimes the puppies and kittens are accidents.
“ When you have that male Lab and he runs out just one day and he finds five females in heat. Good night. What an expensive romp that was, ” she said.
She also knows the proposal to increase the fee will not sit well with everyone.
“ I think for some folks, it seems harsh. It seems like, ‘ Wow ! ’ But, really, when you stop and think about it, when we don’t spay and neuter we have accidental births and those accidents turn into dogs and cats nobody wants, ” she said.
To Hatfield, the euthanasia of animals in this country in 2006 is ridiculous.
“ That just isn’t right. We play God everyday here and we don’t want to. We just don’t, ” she said.
“ We can’t just keep doing this, ” she said. “ It’s wrong. ”
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