Clark County dogs enjoy the dog park in a photo from August. For much of the county, pet licenses for dogs and cats will see a fee increase this month to help fund needed staff increases for Clark County Animal Control.
Those living with dogs or cats in the majority of Clark County will have to pay a little more per year to have their pet officially licensed as a fee increase comes into effect this month to help fund the ailing county animal control department.
Starting Feb. 1, the rates for animal licenses will increase by as much as $20 annually for owners of dogs and cats over six months in the city of Vancouver, the town of Yacolt and unincorporated Clark County. Some increases are as low as $9 for spayed or neutered dogs (from $16 to $25) while for unaltered (not spayed or neutered) cats the increase was $20 annually, from $20 to $40.
Clark County Board of County Councilors approved the increase Jan. 24, and the city of Vancouver approved the increase in December, according to information from the Clark County Animal Control website.
The increase was sought in order to help with the strain put on animal control as a result of the population increase in the last few decades in the coverage area. Currently, the department has four full-time Animal Control Officers (ACOs), which is the same as the department had four decades ago when the county’s population was roughly a third of what it is today.
With the increase of pet license fees, Clark County Animal Control Manager Paul Scarpelli said that revenues for the department could go up close to $250,000 annually based on “tempered” estimates using the numbers of registrations currently as a baseline. The rate increase would pay for “at least one officer” with Scarpelli explaining that the funding would go to far more than just salary, including benefits, equipment and process funding for the officer as well as things like spay and neuter programs.
Scarpelli said that after a year of license applications and renewals coming in, the amount of revenue would be looked at to see of the possibility of a sixth officer. The possible staff increase would help get the department back to pre-recession levels, which left Animal Control at 1970s-levels of staffing.
“So we’re swamped,” Scarpelli remarked about the current situation. “The fifth person is going to help out quite a bit, but we would really love to be back up to six or seven field officers to do our job appropriately.”
Although pet licensing is the law, those abiding by it are actually in the minority. About 30 percent of dogs in the jurisdiction and anywhere from 8 to 10 percent of cats are registered, according to Scarpelli’s estimates, with roughly 24,000 dogs and 8,000 cats registered.
Even with the relatively low rate of compliance, the fee increase is based on current licensing at those levels, as Scarpelli explained.
There is a penalty for unlicensed pets. The fine for an unlicensed animal is $100 per pet, Scarpelli explained, though for first-time offenders that fine could be negated by coming into compliance within 10 days.
As far as enforcement, Scarpelli said license violations do have a fair share of citations, with him estimating a few dozen citations weekly for the offense.
Although Clark County Animal Control doesn’t cover cities like Ridgefield or Battle Ground by statute, in some situations ACOs are needed to help out with local police, Scarpelli said.
“If there’s a horse issue, if you’re not a horse person and a police officer in Ridgefield, you don’t know what to do,” Scarpelli explained, “so they call us and we go and help.”
If avoiding the fine isn’t enough for people to get their dog or cat registered, the fact that Animal Control has a hand in helping the entire animal community was the major reason why Scarpelli said that licensing was a good idea.
“Your pet licensing goes to pay for more than just your cat … it’s because you care about cats in the community that you want to license your animal because you know that the funding goes to a good source,” Scarpelli said.
