City Council complies with terms of animal shelter bill
By Kara Chalmers
The City Council on Nov. 3 approved a plan to comply with a state bill mandating longer stays for animals in shelters, which is slated to go into effect on July 1, 2000.
Under this bill, strays will be held at shelters for five business days, and feral (wild) cats and owner-surrendered animals will be held for four days through 2000, and for five after 2001.
Council members adopted the compliance plan, which includes a schedule and a funding source for dealing with the bill's provisions, because they were required to do so to receive an extension until July 2000. The state bill originally was scheduled to take effect this past July.
The Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley now provides animal services to nine cities in the county--Saratoga, San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Milpitas and Santa Clara. Services include picking up stray, injured or dead animals off the street, holding animals for reclaim, and enforcing leash and bark laws.
The cities now must take over these tasks. The Humane Society announced in December that it would change from an "open door" to a "no kill" facility over the next few years. The society will continue to provide adoptions, spay and neuter operations, education and humane investigations, but it will no longer take in stray animals or enforce laws.
Humane Society Executive Director Christine Arnold said the reason for the change is that she cannot comply with the new law. Today, the Humane Society keeps strays with tags for 10 days before checking them medically and behaviorally, and holds strays with no tags for three. If the strays fail the tests, they are placed in foster care or with rescue organizations, or they are euthanized. However, owner-surrendered animals that are deemed unadoptable, such as a dog that has severely injured an infant, are often put down within 24 hours. The new law would require that these animals be held for four, and eventually five, days.
Arnold said that complying with the new law might force her to kill adoptable animals to make room for unadoptable ones, which goes against the whole mission of the Humane Society, and possibly the intent of the law.
"What is important in any shelter is that there is limited space and limited resources," she said. "You always want to be dedicating your space to those animals that are adoptable.
The adopted compliance plan says Saratoga and the other cities must form a Joint Powers Authority to provide animal control services and to finance, build and run a new facility. The cities also must acquire a site, choose a design, and approve a cost-sharing plan for financing the JPA by July, 2000.
By organizing an Animal Services Working Group, the city managers of Campbell, San Jose, Milpitas, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have taken the first step in replacing the aspects of their contracts with the Humane Society. The group has found a four-acre vacant property in San Jose, and the city of San Jose has hired a project manager and selected an architecture firm to design a facility. Campbell's city manager is representing the interests of all the west valley cities, including Saratoga.
The cities will share the costs of a new shelter based on population, number of licensed animals and Humane Society statistics, such as how many animals are picked up each year. A consulting firm has estimated that the initial costs for this project will be $4.5 million, of which Saratoga would pay $92,250, or 2.05 percent. This money would go toward managing the project, designing a facility and buying a site.
The consultant estimated the project's total cost to be between $15 million and $18 million. Using the same cost-sharing formula, Saratoga's remaining share would be between $307,500 and $369,000.
The current annual cost for animal services in Saratoga is about $60,000 per year, according to Paula Reeve, administrative analyst for the city. That is estimated to increase to $86,000 annually with the changes. The general fund could be used to pay the extra costs, she said.
"We will incur an increase, there's no doubt about it," Reeve said "But I believe in the long run, the benefit to Saratoga will be very helpful because we won't have to be dependent on an outside agency for services. We will have control and a voice over what goes on."
The Humane Society has agreed to extend its contracts with all the cities through June 30, 2001, because the new shelter won't be ready by 2000.
"We will also continue to shelter strays until a shelter is built because there would be no place left for them to go," Arnold said. "And that's not part of our mission, either."
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
