Every so often, an animal control person reverts back to the old days. Can you please send these guys some messages, to let them know we are watching?
I find North Carolina is one of the worst states in animal adoption. No doubt they are inundated with puppies; I see it in all the adoption "urgent" postings. But I think they rely way too much on euthanization and not enough on adoption, nor on controlling puppymills, which breed far more dogs than are needed (and do so in appauling conditions).
I got this from Facebook:
Mr. Horton at animal control has proposed for his budget cut to do away with the adoption program and rely on euth. Please spread the word and write our County Commissioners. He wants to buy a new animal control truck. This is going to set Gaston County back years if this passes. I was told that they well surpassed their adoption percentage this year.
GASTON COUNTY CONTACTS
Reggie Horton rhorton@gcps.org
County Manager Jan Winters Jan.Winters@co.gaston.nc.us
Chief of Police William Farley wfarley@gcps.org
County commissioners: John Torbett jtorbett@co.gaston.nc.us
Joe Carpenter KINGSPINNACLE@aol.com
Allen Fraley, Vice Chair afraley@carolina.rr.com
Tom Keigher tckcom@aol.com
Donnie Loftis donnieloftis@bellsouth.net
Mickey Price, Chairman mprice@co.gaston.nc.us
Tracy Philbeck tracy@tracyphilbeck.com
County Attorney Charles Moore - cmoore@co.gaston.nc.us
Assistant County Attorney Sam Shames shames@co.gaston.nc.us
Gaston County Tourism! 1-800-849-9994
From county document:
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Function: Public Safety Department: Animal Control
Tentative FY 11 Budget: $1,616,366 County Dollars: 55.3% FY 10 Highlights:
• Operating increase for maintenance and equipment for facility in order to comply with State guidelines
• Financing of 1 Animal Control Truck
Benchmarks:
• Calls per Officer in FY 09 were at 2,448, up 20.5% from 2,032 in FY 06
• The number of animal control calls is projected for FY 10 to be 27,737, an increase from 25,822 in FY 08 (7.42%)
Animal Control’s reduction of 1% under the FY 10 Adopted Budget equates to a reduction of $6,400. For this reduction to be absorbed, Animal Control proposes:
• Eliminating the Adoption Program - $2,714
• Relying more on Carbon Monoxide - $3,925
• Deeper Reductions proposed by Animal Control are related to the privatization of kennel operations. Much groundwork is necessary to fully explore the possibility, due to time constraints only the 1% below FY 10 reductions are brought to the BOC.
xoxo (please make a few calls and send a few emails)
