This Week in the Mercury
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
City Hall / Politics / Portland Council Approves Pricey Pet Registration Idea
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:00 PM
"A catalyst, a ha ha ha ha ha," said City Commissioner Randy Leonard, in response to a presentation in city council this morning about a new city/county partnership to save lost cats and dogs from being put down in Portland.
"We appreciate your dogged leadership, Randy," said City Commissioner Nick Fish.
CAT QUE$TION: IS YOUR KITTY REGISTERED, NEUTERED...?
Hold on. How much is this going to cost? Sure, we're in a budget pinch, but the program will cost $495,000 to start up in the first year. On top of that, there'll be ongoing annual costs, for example $750,000 a year for urban services officers, and $616,000 a year for community outreach and education. By year five, the program is expected to cost $1.73m a year to run, but make $1.78m a year in pet registration fees, according to projections by the task force.
But it's alright. Council, this morning, has passed the task force recommendations to set up the program, but hasn't committed to funding, just yet. They're just going to put together an implementation committee. Still...with funding for basic services under threat, it was surprising to this reporter that council voted unanimously in favor of accepting the report this morning, with very little mention of the upcoming "fiscal emergency" resolution that was being agonized over, yesterday.
Right now, only 14% of Portlanders license their pets—even though they're supposed to, by law. Last year, 4,438 cats and dogs were euthanized at the county shelter, or 45% of the stray pets taken in. So the city/county Animal Services Task Force, convened by Leonard and county chair, Ted Wheeler, is suggesting retiring the licensing program, in favor of a new "pet registration" system, which will cost $10 per cat, and $25 per dog, as long as the animals are sterilized. Animals with their wombs/balls intact will be more expensive to register, under the plan. You can download the Animal Services Task Force report as a pdf, here.
One obvious potential problem with the new registration program is that it may be very difficult to enforce, as evidenced by the current low level of pet licensing. The task force seems intent on "selling" the benefits of registration to pet owners. But it's not clear how they'd enforce the program beyond that.
"It's easy to joke about, but we're outlining a progression of enforcement, that may be way beyond where the citizens and veterinarian community may be willing to go," said City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, pushing the case for a more thorough look at enforcement.
"To be perfectly transparent, it's going to be a very challenged budget," says county chair Ted Wheeler, of his upcoming budget, which faces a shortfall in excess of $30m, when asked whether the county is going to be able to chip in any money. "It's my recommendation that you do pass the recommendations of the task force and that we look at steps to implementation."
The implementation group will make its recommendations to council in June.
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They just opened a fancy, schmancy new hospital building that was funded by some generous deceased person's will.
In any casy, if I lived in Portland I would absolutely support mandatory licensing.
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We had the chips implanted in both our cats. It cost very little. Isn't that enough to ensure that we would be contacted should they ever go into custody? What is the difference between getting a chip and getting registered?
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Which is now causing the likely 'financial emergency' to be declared.
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but yeah, otherwise, why would this work?
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