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Show ? s. . V... . -av' yHt?vy' ;.--'.. v---'--5r .i,.. n OVERCROWDED Davis County Animal Control Officers say the kennels at the county facility are overcrowded. Davis County dog and cat population continues to grow while the shelter remains the same size. By ROSELYN KIRK Officials in Davis County cities are considering licensing dogs within city . limits and hiring animal control officers to patrol city streets. They will further discuss the possibility at the Council of Governments (COG) meeting on April 20. Noel Evans, Davis County Animal Control director, says he approves of the plan. "IT WOULD help us out," he said. "In the last five years, the county has increased in population and we are still operating with the same number of men we had five years ago." Statistics show that in 1971 animal control officers picked up 3,600 animals. In 1976 the number has increased to 4,126. The move for the cities to license their own animals began when Bountiful decided in January that the city wasn't getting adequate patrolling from the county animal control officers. BOUNTIFUL CITY Council also disapproved of the increase in dog license costs from $3 to $5. They decided to charge Bountiful residents $3 for a city dog licensing fee and have Bountiful City animal control officer, Ed Clontz pick up dogs in the city and transport them to the , county pound. Mr. Evans said the Davis County licensing fee was increased by COG in an effort to decrease the county money needed to subsidize the shelter. Last year the pound cost the county $60,000 above the fees raised through licensing, and impound fees. With the licensing hike, Mr. Evans said the pound hopes to be more self-supporting and cut the sub-sidation sub-sidation figure down to $30,000. JOHN FAUX, field investigator for the Humane Society, said the pound still needs more money to make it an ideal facility. "The commissioners need to budget more money to increase the manpower man-power and add to the facilities," he said. Mr. Faux said the Davis County animal control facility, while not ideal, is "well cared for." He said "Animal control officers of-ficers are doing a good job. The problems officers face are a result of financing and nothing they can deal with themselves." MR. FAUX feels the shelter should be enlarged so that a facility for cats is available in the same building. Even though Davis County doesn't have an ordinance or-dinance forcing residents to license cats, many cats are brought to the animal control con-trol facility and must be cared for. Cats are currently housed in the cages in the barn and not in the central building. Mr. Evans said that if Davis cities decide to pick up the licensing fees and ' hire an animal control officer to patrol the municipalities, county environmental officials of-ficials could care for the animals that are delivered to them. He suggested that an animal control officer could be hired to patrol each of the five county areas now being patrolled. THE AREAS are: (I) Woods Cross. North Salt Lake and West Bountiful. (2) Centerville, Farmington and Kaysville. (3) Layton, East Layton and South Weber. (4) Syracuse, West Point and Clinton. (5) , Sunset and Clearfield. At present each of these areas is patrolled pa-trolled by a county officer in a vehicle, but Mr. Evans admitted that most of the time is spent picking up animals that have been reported by phone. "This leaves the officers very little time to patrol pa-trol since we are under-staffed," Mr. Evans raid. THE FIVE areas were established on the basis of the number of telephone calls received, he said. Bountiful had complained the city was not getting good coverage from the county animal control officer. Mr. Evans argued that the county sent one man into Bountiful for four hours each day. Based on the number of calls, this was their share of our time. Mr. Evans said that number of people' in the area or area size were not used as a criteria for setting up the districts. "We determine where the need is by the number of telephone calls we receive," he said. THE FIVE animal control officers on patrol picked up 410 dogs in January and 342 in February. Mr. Evans said officers pick up an average of 400 animals each month. If these numbers continue to hold, the county shelter will pick up 4,800 dogs this year, as compared to 4,100 last year. Of the 342 dogs picked up in February, 89 were reclaimed, 34 were sold, and the rest were destroyed. When a dog is picked up, the owner Is issued a citation and must appear in the city or justice of peace court. The judge may fine the dog owner from $5 to (25 for allowing a dog to run loose without a leash. Money raised from citations goes into the city treasury. AFTER THE animal is picked up by the animal control officer, it is taken to the pound and kept for three to five days until the owner is notified, Mr. Evans said. "We call the owners, and if they can't be reached by telephone, we send them a post card. All post cards should arrive quickly as they are posted in the town where the resident lives. "We have kept the dogs as long as ten days, if we have room in the kennel," he said. When the owner picks up his animal, he is required to pay a (15 impound fee and must pay 13 a day for each day that the animal is boarded by the county. IF THE dog is a biter, he must be quarantined and kept in isolation by a veterinarian at a cost of from (3 to S6 a day. The owner must also pay this cost to get his animal back. Many times owners don't pick up their dogs as they are not willing to pay the fees incurred by the animals. About 80 animals a week are destroyed since the shelter does not have the space to house more. He said after the long weekend during the President's Day holiday, 128 dogs were destroyed. THE DOGS are put to sleep with an injection in-jection of sodium pentothal and phenobarbital, which is mixed by Dr. Richard White, a veterinarian from Fruit Heights. Animal control officers have been trained how to administer the injection, injec-tion, Mr. Evans said. Even though the dog population has increased rapidly in Davis County during the last five years, the space in the pound has not increased. "We need to have more pen room. We need double the space we now have,"' he said. THE SHELTER also needs additional room for large animals that are picked up. Two weeks ago animal control officers were called out on a Saturday to pick up 15 head of cattle that had broken through a fence and had wandered out onto the Farmington Cemetery. "We found the owner and fixed the fence. Otherwise we would have had to haul the animals in a truck to the barn where larger animals are kept." Animal Control officers dealt with 64 large animals last year. "WE HAVE very little room for larger animals, but usually we find the owners and take them back," Mr. Evans said. Mr. Faux said an immediate need at the shelter is a bank of cages for cats, but he isn't sure where the cages could be placed. "There is no room in the building with the dogs. The barn, where the cages are currently being placed, is not Ideal." The number of cats being handled by animal control officers is also on the increase. In 1968, 966 cats were handled by officers. That number increased to 2,913 in 1976. |