Ordinance seeks to curtail Valley's stray population

Darcy Leal sees the extent of the Rio Grande Valley’s pet overpopulation problem every day she can.

When her job at a medical office keeps her from volunteering at the Palm Valley Animal Center, she said she feels guilty that she’s not there to dote on the 55 pets available for adoption daily at the shelter.

• Looking to adopt a pet? Click here!

“The problem is there’s so many animals here,” Leal said while walking Bolt, a red-haired mutt, outside the shelter at 2501 W. Trenton Road. “You can only do so much.”

Supporters of Hidalgo County’s sole animal shelter argue there’s only so much it can do to handle the rising number of stray animals.

Though the shelter found homes for 2,000 pets last year, it euthanized 15 times that many, a statistic that distresses Leal and others.

But when the county’s cities are asked to adopt an ordinance intended to reduce the number of euthanized animals, the committee members who are drafting the model ordinance plan to appeal to their pocketbooks as much as their heartstrings.

Costs to handle the stray animals are skyrocketing, with the city of McAllen spending nearly twice as much as it did five years ago.

Steve Bentsen, a McAllen veterinarian who chairs the committee, said the still-not-finalized ordinance won’t affect responsible pet owners.

The committee rejected a controversial mandatory spay and neuter ordinance, saying it penalized law abiding owners and pets, he said.

Instead, they chose to give reduced fines if spayed and neutered animals are picked up by animal control officers.

And pets that are kept indoors or behind gates aren’t subject to most other aspects of the ordinance since there will be no door-to-door canvassing for compliance.

If the finalized ordinance is adopted by the cities, it will lower costs and health risks for the cities, Bentsen said. Given time, it will also reduce the 30,000 animals euthanized at the shelter each year.

“By and large, the public loves dogs and cats,” he said. “If people in this community can understand that we’re killing over 100 animals a day and we want to quit, they’ll get behind this.”

A HIGH COST

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council formed the committee to study what other cities have done to curb pet overpopulation and prepare an ordinance that can be adopted by cities in Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties.

Ken Jones, the council’s executive director, said a uniformly applied and enforced model ordinance is a way to reduce the number of stray animals entering area shelters.

A common thread between each of the cities in Hidalgo County is the rising costs to take strays off the street, said John Ingram, a McAllen city commissioner and president of the development council.

McAllen spent $282,200 to handle feral dogs and cats last year, he said. Those are funds that can go to building a park or making drainage improvements instead.

But Ingram said he knows they must take a tempered approach by beginning with methods that are easily enforced and accepted.

When Ingram suggested earlier this year that McAllen should look at adopting a mandatory spay and neuter ordinance similar to one in Dallas, pet owners told him it tramples on property rights.

He said the committee must balance the competing interests to find an ordinance that is widely accepted.

“We’re trying to address this problem so this population explosion doesn’t get out of control,” Ingram said. “There’s got to be a middle ground between property rights and being responsible pet owners and the concerns of government.”

STOPPING STRAYS

Almost all of the 38,000 animals that ended up at the animal shelter last year were found wandering the streets, said Darin Landrum, its executive director.

If each one mates before it is brought in, a big problem becomes a bigger problem real fast, he said. Keeping animals off the street — including the 6,000 or so that the shelter returns to their owners each year — is the best way to keep them from reproducing.

Landrum, a member of the committee, said they chose attainable methods in the ordinance that can become more stringent if the number of strays doesn’t go down.

He cautioned that even if a model ordinance is widely adopted and enforced, no one expects a quick fix to the stray population.

But Bentsen said it’s a better approach than sticking with current laws and efforts and watching the costs and euthanasia rise.

“This effort is not slowing down the reproduction,” Bentsen said. “They’re producing out there just as fast as they’re being taken off the streets.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.

___

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council is preparing a model animal control ordinance to curb the skyrocketing costs for handling stray animals. The Palm Valley Animal Center, Hidalgo County's only animal shelter, took in 38,000 animals last year, but it had to euthanize almost 30,000. In addition, city and county funding for the shelter has almost tripled since 2003.

Palm Valley Animal Shelter services in 2008:

Animals received: 38,094

Animals adopted: 1,903

Animals euthanized: 29,780

Top five financial contributors to Palm Valley Animal Shelter in 2008:

McAllen: $282,200

Hidalgo County: $233,333

Pharr: $197,559

Edinburg: $193,045

San Juan: $136,931

City/county funding for the Palm Valley Animal Shelter:

2003: $535,846

2004: $593,018

2005: $664,488

2006: $1,064,543

2007: $1,156.891

2008: $1,316,326

Potential components of model ordinance:

Ban of roadside and flea market sales of animals

Required vaccination and licensing of all animals

Reduced or forgiven licensing fees for spayed/neutered animals

Citations should be issued for impounded pets

Citations would be reduced for spayed/neutered animals as incentives

Third offense impoundment would require mandatory spay/neuter as condition of release to owner

Pet stores should be inspected and licensed annually

Enforcement would be directed at animals that violate the law, meaning no door to door canvassing for compliance

Items not included in draft of model ordinance:

Mandatory spay/neuter of all pets

Litter permits, breeder permits or intact animal permits

Unreasonably high license fees