Walker County is considering new regulations for the animals of pet owners who habitually strain the county’s animal control resources, but some residents are concerned the spay/neuter and microchipping requirements being proposed are government overreach.
There are too many unwanted animals in Walker County, Emily Sadler, director of the county’s animal shelter, said, and the county’s animal control workers and shelter are overwhelmed. Responsible animal owners won’t be affected, she said at last week’s county commission meeting, but animal control needs new powers to manage a few problem owners in the county.
“If you come into the shelter with boxes of puppies, kittens, your dogs are intact, constantly running at large, reproducing throughout the entire neighborhood,” Sadler said. “Those are the people that we are looking for. And they’re not hard to find. We deal with them all day, every day.”
Sadler and Shannon Whitfield, county commission chair, said the proposed ordinance would be enforcement-based, and responsible animal owners would not be impacted. Sadler said county officials aren’t trying to target people breeding cattle dogs or beagles for hunting — just irresponsible owners.
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“They’re not going to go door to door asking for animal registration,” Whitfield said of animal control officers if the ordinance is passed.
The ordinance needs another hearing before it can be voted on by the five-member commission. That hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 14, county spokesperson Joe Legge said in an email.
Currently, animal control officers can help owners get into compliance cooperatively, Whitfield said, by offering grant-supported spay and neuter services and microchipping at a low cost.
CITIZEN CONCERN
Kenneth Wilson was one of several residents at the meeting who said the ordinance was too broad and gives the county government too much power.
“I hear that in this ordinance, they’re not going to do this or do that, but they can do it,” he said.
He said he doesn’t want county officials coming on his property, nor does he want his dog spayed or neutered or microchipped.
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The draft of the ordinance on the county’s website says all adult dogs and cats must be spayed or neutered and microchipped. There are exceptions only for owners of animals with a breeder license, working animals or animals that cannot be microchipped or spayed/neutered for health reasons.
Commissioner Mark Askew said verbiage needs to be added to the ordinance because he doesn’t want the government visiting his property unless he’s caused a problem either.
Ned Yates, a resident of Ascalon/Mt. Pleasant, said this ordinance raises concern about excess of government. He asked about the circumstances that would allow an animal control officer to enter the property of an animal owner.
Sadler said to enter a property, animal control officers need to have probable cause that abuse or neglect is happening and get a warrant from a magistrate judge.
POPULATION PROBLEM
Janice Williams, a resident of Rossville, said she supports the ordinance because there’s an animal overpopulation problem in the county.
She would like to see an ordinance limiting backyard breeding as well, she said, because there are a lot of dogs being bred irresponsibly in the county. People who run private animal rescue organizations like herself receive a lot of animals that haven’t gotten proper care, and it’s difficult and expensive to get those animals healthy and find them homes.
Walker County taxpayers are spending a lot of money on animal care, Sadler said.
The shelter has about 150 dogs ready for no-fee adoption, she said, and almost 2,000 dogs so far have gone through the county’s shelter this year.
“Y’all are spending a lot of money housing, feeding, vetting, transporting and euthanizing animals that don’t even have to be born,” she said. “They’re unwanted. Nobody wants them.”
Sadler said her staff is hard working and empathetic and it is “devastating” for them to have to euthanize healthy, unwanted animals.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.