No one can say the Spokane City Council didn’t study the issue thoroughly before deciding on Monday to join a regional animal-control program beginning in 2010. A succession of councils have been talking about the idea for a decade.

While somewhat late in coming, it is the right choice.

That’s no reflection on SpokAnimal C.A.R.E., the nonprofit organization that’s been responsible for issuing licenses and rounding up strays in Spokane for some 20 years. But that agency has sent a clear message that its heart is elsewhere – namely in finding homes for the abandoned animals that come its way. And frankly, the better that work is performed, the more effectively the animal-control work can be accomplished.

So when SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. submitted a package of alternative proposals – largely at some council members’ urging – it was not a compelling option.

And while an agreement with the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, or SCRAPS, poses some challenges of its own, it makes considerable sense on a couple of related fronts.

“ SCRAPS is a public entity and animal control is a public – that is, government – responsibility. Contracting with a private organization subjects the community to the kind of uncertainties that have arisen in the recent years with SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. In addition, Spokane’s 200,000 residents are also constituents of county government.

“ As development continues to alter land use and population density, it’s harder for longstanding government structures to deliver services efficiently. Barring a consolidation of city and county government, which voters have turned down, officials should be looking for areas – such as animal control – where it makes sense to join similar programs into combined operations.

Yes, the city of Spokane will have to invest in an expansion of the county’s shelter, but that is a capital need that would have to be addressed sooner or later no matter who was in charge of the program.

When the new agreement takes effect in a little more than a year and a half, SCRAPS will handle animal control responsibilities for almost the entire county. The sale of pet licenses and the enforcement of noncompliance can be handled with more consistency by an agency already doing much of that for the unincorporated area of the county, the city of Spokane Valley and certain smaller municipalities.

An important next step should be for the city and county to adopt uniform licensing fees at levels that underwrite a fair share of the program costs while making it worthwhile for residents to spay and neuter pets.

In the meantime, there may well be a bonus. SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. can devote itself to placing spayed and neutered animals in responsible, caring homes and educating the public about responsible pet ownership. Such efforts will ease the burdens that are about to be turned over to SCRAPS.