Inside the York County Council chambers. The blonde lady is Alicia Schwartz, the speaker for this issue. She did a great job covering the issues related to these two prospective laws.
The animal licensing ordinance asks a dog or cat owner to obtain an annual license for their pet: $7 if it is altered (spayed/neutered) and $75 if it's unaltered. This isn't a new idea; many other states and counties already have this ordinance in place. They found that most people would rather alter their pets than pay an annual fee of $75 for each. For the bean counters of York County this would mean fewer unwanted animals getting dumped at the animal shelter which results in less tax money going to the shelter for euthanasia costs. It also keeps down the number of animals that breeders will want to breed - remember, for every pet a breeder breeds an unadopted animal at the shelter dies. It also reduces the number of unsocialized and possibly dangerous fighting dogs that are allowed to freely breed in people's fenced in back yards.
Although I see a drawback to the ordinance (how do you enforce it?) the council members asked Alicia several questions and appeared to be truly interested in this idea, especially since it's already been tried out elsewhere and found to be very successful. It was fun to observe the process of citizen appeal to local government, and we made some new animal welfare acquaintances as well.
As a side note, it was fascinating to learn that the two women who started the Animal Adoption League in York Country are named Martha and Inge. We spoke with both of these nice ladies and Inge is actually Ingeborg from Germany, whose father was Austrian. :-)
FYI: Alicia Schwartz formed Dogs Deserve Better, a national organization. And as for enforcement? I believe she said it could be tied in with the rabies vaccine and using a company called PetData.
2 comments:
So awesome that ya'll went. I hope it works, but the enforcement seems to be a real problem. Most of the people who tether their animals don't follow other animal laws either, right? There are usually spay/neuter clinics who might alter a pet for less than $75, so I hope this passes and York County reduces overpopulation.
-Shirin
My thoughts exactly. They say there is a different colored tag each year so animal welfare advocates or the county should be able to tell at a glance if they're registered. But who's going to ring that doorbell on the scary house with the 10 unsocialized pit bulls in the back yard?
The selling point is that it HAS worked in other parts of the country, but nothing is ever 100%. Some cities/counties reported an 80% reduction in their euthanasia rates.
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