Dog, cat license fees may rise

Dog and cat licenses in the city of Spokane may be going up to pay for the increasing cost of animal control inside the city.

Spokane City Council members on Monday are expected to consider modest increases in licenses for spayed and neutered pets and steeper increases for animals that have not been sterilized.

Licenses for sterilized cats would go from $7.50 to $8 and for sterilized dogs from $12 to $13.

Councilman Bob Apple has proposed steeper fees for nonsterilized animals to create an incentive for controlling animal reproduction. Licenses for nonsterilized cats would go from $10 to $25 while nonsterilized dogs would cost $50, up from $23.

The increases, estimated to raise nearly $100,000 a year, would help ease a cash crunch at SpokAnimal C.A.R.E., the nonprofit agency that contracts with the city to provide animal control services.

Officials at SpokAnimal said the additional funding isn’t enough to keep them in the animal control business for much longer. While they are willing to continue animal control duties for one more year, they are asking the city to join a regional animal control program.

“We want to get out of the animal control business,” said Gail Mackie, director of SpokAnimal.

Mackie said SpokAnimal plans to revamp its mission as the Inland Northwest Humane Society, which would work on finding homes for healthy animals and ending the euthanasia of hundreds adoptable dogs and cats in the city each year.

Three animal shelters in Spokane County last year put down 7,309 unwanted dogs and cats. Of those, 1,518 were considered healthy enough to adopt and another 4,224 could have been treated to make them adoptable.

Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services, also known as SCRAPS, two years ago offered to take over the city’s animal control contract, but at a substantially higher cost than SpokAnimal.

SpokAnimal officials in 2004 said they wanted to get out of their animal control duties by this year. However, city officials had failed to prepare for a transition to another contractor, and are now in a position of seeking a one-year extension with SpokAnimal while they consider participation in a regional animal control agency.

Nancy Hill, director of SCRAPS, said her service is still willing to expand into the city of Spokane, but would need additional funding in addition to the current subsidy and license fees provided to SpokAnimal. SCRAPS currently provides animal control in Spokane Valley, Cheney, Millwood, Fairchild Air Force Base and unincorporated portions of the county.

Hill said reliance on income from pet licenses makes sense because it places the cost of animal control on the people who own cats and dogs.

However, compliance with pet-licensing is poor. Hill said only about 40 percent of dogs and 15 percent of cats are licensed. SpokAnimal and SCRAPS have issued about 70,000 pet licenses.

Licenses offer pet owners assurance their dogs and cats will be returned to them if they ever get lost or stray. “The license is the pet’s phone call home,” Hill said.

The public at large also benefits from animal control services, which includes responses to complaints about nuisance pets, barking dogs and animal cruelty. Animal welfare agencies also offer programs for pet ownership, and have opportunities for spaying and neutering.

Apple said that the city has no choice but to come up with a workable animal control program. Otherwise, the burden would shift to police, who already have trouble keeping a check on many types of crime. “I don’t think that’s an option,” Apple said.