Where is the Animal Control Commission?

Carroll County Commissioners established an animal control ordinance and commission in 2001. The commission consisted of the county sheriff, the shelter provider, a commissioner and representatives from Delphi, Flora, Camden and Burlington. The sheriff was assigned the duty to head the group.

The sheriff at the time was Dennis Randle. The commission met to establish the cost to an owner to retrieve their animal from the shelter. Dr. Lawrence Stauffer was designated as the shelter provider and his charges to the county for cats and dogs were established.

And then the commission didn't meet again.

The commissioners did not ask the sheriff for reports and did not provide guidance for the operation of the commission.

Fast forward to 2005 - the county council became concerned about the cost of animal care to the county. Dr. Stauffer requested to be paid more per animal. He presented claims every month and the animal control officer presented a monthly activity report. Both indicated about twice as many cats were processed through the system as dogs. The council wanted to reduce the costs and strongly suggested cats not be picked up, sheltered and paid for.

A story appeared in the March 2005 issue of the Comet about the situation and the dormant animal control commission.

Shortly after the story appeared, the animal control commission met to re-work the ordinance. However, some of the ordinance verbiage was unacceptable to the council and it was reworked between Sheriff Randle, the commissioners and the council to be acceptable to all of parties.

The problem was that the body appointed to direct the course of the service was left out of the process.

On to 2007. The county's financial situation is in question. There may not be enough money to pay the bills at the end of the year. It was suggested animal control be eliminated to save money, but in the June 13 CometWeb poll results, 58 percent of respondents did not care for that alternative.

In response to opposition to the elimination suggestion, the council decided to direct townships and cities and towns to put money aside in their 2008 budgets to help pay for the service.

And where is the animal control commission in all of this? The county has a new sheriff who inherited the distinction of being in charge. However, he has received no direction from the commissioners, at least nothing in public, about how to proceed.

The commissioners and the sheriff should step up and work for the solution to this troubling issue. It is their job.

The reality is… +County residents do not want the service eliminated. +Dr. Stauffer cannot continue as the shelter provider forever. +Residents do not understand what animals will and will not be picked up and sheltered.

However, there are options… +The Animal Control Commission could meet monthly; +The county could investigate opening an animal shelter utilizing reduced county funding. Private donations and grants could be developed as funding streams. A volunteer program could be developed to perform some shelter work. (Could those who need to do community service hours be utilized?); and/or +Contracting with nearby shelter services could be explored.

The time to act is now. It would be prudent to develop a well thought out county-wide plan utilizing all resources, including the Carroll County Animal Control Commission!