Animal shelter raises rates
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, October 2, 2005
The Everett Animal Shelter is raising its rates to house stray animals to $80 per animal in 2006 from the current $60 per animal charge.
That fee is in addition to a daily housing fee. The change is to help keep pace with the cost of operating the regional animal shelter. To help pay the increase, the Marysville City Council is considering raising its fines for having an unlicensed pet to $150 and $250. Marysville and other area municipalities contract with the Everett shelter.
Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald Everett Animal Shelter executive director Bud Wessman holds a stray puppy that was recently turned in to the shelter.
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Currently, if a Marysville dog or cat is impounded, the city charges the owner a transportation and impound fee of $100, plus the daily cost while the animal remains at the Everett shelter. Violation of Marysville’s leash law can result in a fine of up to $250.
The council also is considering giving away pet licenses in hopes that more people will obtain them so that strays picked up can be returned home rather than taken to the shelter. The city currently charges $20 per year for a pet license and $15 for owners 60 and older. Owners whose animals have been spayed or neutered can get a lifetime pet license for $30, or $15 for seniors.
If the city gave away pet licenses, it could lose $7,200 to $7,500 in license revenue, but might save that much or more in shelter costs if officers could return animals to their homes, said Mary Swenson, the city’s chief administrative officer.
“The hope is that more people would come in and get the licenses, and the city maybe could even issue them over our Web site. People would just register and we’d mail them out,” she said.
The council discussed conducting a pilot program to see if free licenses might make a difference in how many dogs have to be taken to the shelter instead of returned home.
Marysville Police Chief Bob Carden said it costs more to put an animal into the shelter than to book a prisoner in the jail. The city’s jail booking fee is $32.
The two fees really don’t compare, animal shelter executive director Bud Wessman said. While the booking fee is higher for animals, jails generally charge a higher daily housing fee.
“And the jail doesn’t provide spay and neuter services for prisoners, nor do they (implant microchips in them). The jail doesn’t have to euthanize prisoners if they don’t have room for them,” Wessman said.
The City Council will discuss pet licensing at its workshop at 7 tonight at City Hall, 1049 State Ave.
Marysville officials anticipate the cost of housing stray animals in 2006 at $43,000. That’s at least $1,000 more than this year.
“Owners have got to take more responsibility for their pets,” Carden said.
Marysville, Arlington, Gold Bar, Granite Falls, Index, Lake Stevens, Lynnwood, Monroe, Mill Creek, Mukilteo, Stanwood, Sultan, Snohomish County and the Tulalip Tribes contract with the Everett Animal Shelter, and all are currently renegotiating their contracts.
Everett’s animal control employees bring in 37 percent of about 9,000 stray animals at the shelter each year, while 44 percent come from unincorporated Snohomish County.
Marysville, at 5.5 percent, is the shelter’s third-largest contributor, according to shelter statistics averaged from 2001-04, Wessman said.
Last year, Marysville fined 35 people for failing to license pets or having dogs at large. Heavier fines likely will prompt owners to be more careful about keeping animals confined or getting them licensed, Carden said.
The idea of stiffer fines appealed to some council members, but not others.
Councilman Jeff Vaughan said many people might think twice about claiming a pet if it meant facing a stiff fine.
Councilman Jeff Seibert disagreed, saying his dog is never outside, except on a leash, but is like a child to him, and he’d pay a fine if his dog got loose.
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
