Clarendon County (WLTX) - Stray dogs and cats have led Clarendon County to look at creating an Animal Control office. But, the debate is heated on how to pay for it.
County Council held a public hearing Monday night to discuss the proposed ordinance.
"I come home and if there's no one home, this little fella here, he occupies me," James Jackson explains of his 11-week-old Yorkshire Terrier, "He looks forward to me playing with him, throwing him his bone, whatever. He's a lot of company."
Jackson and his wife have only had Presley Abbott for a few weeks, but he's already a member of the family. Jackson is in favor of the ordinance that Clarendon County Council proposed recently.
In order to create an Animal Control office to curb the problem of strays, they want folks to pay $15-$25 a year to register their dogs and cats, and pay outfit them with a microchip to keep track of them.
Not everyone agrees with Jackson. "We do need to do something about strays, but putting a chip in my dog is not the way to do it," Libby Berrineau told council at the meeting.
The public hearing Monday night came after two readings by the council and was almost killed when it was first mentioned, after Councilmember Benton Blakely saw all the opposition.
While the main concern all around is cost to pet owners and tax payers, for Jackson and Presley, safety comes first. "To lose him would be a great loss," Jackson says of his pet.
The ordinance was voted down by council in the third reading, so it won't be coming back. But they are planning to form a committee of citizens to get feedback on other ways to fund Animal Control.
11/9/2009 11:39:37 PM
