Valley cities to take over animal control July 1
By Oakley Brooks
The Humane Society is bowing out of the animal control business in Silicon Valley, but Saratoga City Councilman Stan Bogosian is working to make sure the new control agency retains a humane philosophy in deed, if not in name.
Bogosian, a self-described animal lover with a covey of dogs and cats at home, has worked for the last year with representatives of seven area cities to form the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority. He assures a smooth transition when the agency begins watching over feline and canine citizens on valley streets next month.
"Our first order is to get the field operations up and running by July 1, and we're gonna do it," said Bogosian
The Santa Clara Valley Humane Society will no longer pick up dead animals and shelter strays due to a state law enacted last summer requiring shelters to hold all animals for a minimum five days before euthanizing them.
The law intended to give strays a better chance of being adopted. But Santa Clara Valley Humane Society Executive Director Kristine Benninger says it actually crowds shelters with animals considered to have little chance of being adopted--which were typically put down earlier than five days--pushing up costs and potentially forcing the society to put down adoptable animals.
Benninger says her group wants to avoid that predicament, and beginning July 1, it will only offer spaying, neutering and adoption services.
The society hands off the remaining animal control duties to the joint agency formed last year by the cities of Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Campbell and Santa Clara. Bogosian says the details of how the new agency will deal with the "no kill" law have yet to be worked out. Regardless, the agency will take the reins on July 1.
Managing the area's stray and dead animals, and providing shelter community outreach will cost the cities dearly: $2,165,950 for the next year, offset slightly by revenue from dog license and shelter fees.
Saratoga will pay $190,497 and Los Gatos $199,000 for the services over the next year.
But Los Gatos' liaison to the project, Police Capt. Alana Forest, says the joint effort is the cheapest way to provide animal control.
"It would be way more, if the cities were to do it individually," said Forest.
Bogosian believes the service is a necessity in any community; he points to colonies of cats living, neglected, in rural eastern Washington, where he owns land, as examples of communities shirking their responsibilities to furry friends.
Bogosian ranks animal control just below police and fire service, in its importance to public safety.
The animal control agency's oversight committee, headed by Sunnyvale Vice Mayor Fred Fowler and Bogosian, recently hired Deborah Biggs from Ogden, Utah, to direct the control operations.
Biggs is interviewing candidates for five new field officers by July 1. The officers will use three trucks recently purchased from the Human Society.
Biggs says that during the first two years of operation, the cities will pay the Humane Society to shelter lost animals in its Santa Clara facility.
After that, according to Biggs, the cities will explore buying the Humane Society's facility or building another shelter.
Bogosian says he's hoping to greatly increase education and awareness about spaying and neutering, as a way to counter animal control problems. He adds that the oversight committee is considering an option to waive housing fees, if an owner agrees to fix an animal upon retrieving it from a shelter.
Enough preventative measures might eventually pull off the ultimate coup for animal control, says Bogosian
"If we can put ourselves out of business that would be excellent," he said.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
