Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Sunnyvale officials are working on a new plan for housing impounded animals. In response to a new sate law, the Humane Society of Santa Clara valley soon will no longer serve as an impound shelter.
New animal control law mandates changes
City must find new digs for impounded dogs
BySam Scott
Sunnyvale City Council on May 8 committed the city to housing impounded animals for longer periods of time.
Mary Bradley, Sunnyvale director of finance, said drastic changes in state requirements mandated the decision. State law now requires animal shelters to house impounded animals a minimum of 72 hours before the animals can be put down. Passed in 1998, the law becomes effective July 1.
Previously, animals identified as vicious could be put down after 24 hours, said Chris Arnold, executive director of the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley. When the new law goes into effect, Arnold said, the organization could have to begin euthanizing adaptable animals to accommodate the extended housing of more anti-social animals.
"If we have to hold a 120 pound Rottweiler that took the face of a child for six days," she said, "the only thing we can do is take that sweet basset hound out of the adoption kennel and euthanize it. There's only so much kennel space." Previously, animals deemed suitable for adoption had not been killed, she said.
A second state law, passed as an urgency statute, reprieved the tight squeeze placed on animals shelters by delaying the implementation of the first law until July 1, 2000. To take advantage if the implementation delay, cities were required to submit compliance plans by July 1 saying they would meet the demands of the first law.
On Tuesday, council entered such a compliance plan. In the first year, the resolution calls for Sunnyvale to pursue a series of approaches, including mandating spaying and neutering of animals and enforcing leash laws more diligently. By 2002, the plan also calls for acquiring and developing an animal control site run by a group of cities or contracting with the City of San Jose, which is developing its own shelter site.
Working with the Human Society of Santa Clara Valley soon no longer will be an option for Sunnyvale. The organization is pulling out of the impounding business as a consequence of the law.
"We're giving up our contracts with cities," Arnold said, "We're becoming an adoption-only facility. Adopting is our goal every time."
Arnold said the Humane Society would continue to support the eight contract cities--Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale--until they find shelter alternatives. The Human Society hopes to cease sheltering services no later than June 30, 2002.
Opening and operating a new facility could be an expensive endeavor. Sunnyvale's estimated share of capital costs would be between $1.5 million and $1.8 million, city reports showed.
Bradley said the council would approve the money when it passes the budget in June. The urgency of the circumstance would limit the debate on the issue, she said. "We've got to do something," she said. "The animals won't shelter themselves."
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
