Andrea Rosebrock 
Aren’t there already enough government jobs, whether it be city, county, state or whatever, without having to create more and in the process close an animal shelter, something which is desperately needed?? Seems Monroe County, WI doesn’t think so. Monroe County board voted to create a new county administrator position and to facilitate this the budget has to be cut somewhere and it looks like the animal shelter is going to be the sacrificial lamb. Seems the animals always pay the price.
A finance committee survey found the animal shelter to be a low priority in tax dollar spending. Those involved with the shelter feel differently, saying the county doesn’t understand what impact closing the shelter would have.
Each year the Monroe County Animal Shelter sees about 500 to 600 stray or abandoned dogs.
A proposal to cut about $50,000 of tax funding allocated to run the shelter would leave an estimated $35,000 of revenue from dog licenses to keep the shelter running. However, the revenue in dog licenses alone is not enough to run the whole operation and the Monroe County Humane Officer foresees major problems.
“If we don’t have a place for the stray dogs to go in our county people are going to just take the dogs and dump them in a neighboring county that does have a place for the dogs to go and that would be a horrible solution for a problem for Monroe County,” said Paulette Hansen, the Monroe County Humane Officer.
Vets say an animal shelter is a needed service in any public area.
“If there was no animal shelter people with lost pets would have less of a chance of finding them, the public health issues with wandering loose dogs, parasites, fight issues, and just kindness to the animals, there needs to be a place for pets who don’t have a place to go,” said Dr. Pam Prochaska at Tomah Veterinary Clinic.
The chairman of the Dog Control Committee, Jim Kuhn, says the reason the animal shelter is being targeted is because it is not a county mandated service. Instead, it’s the responsibility of individual municipalities.
But, Kuhn says there are other ways money could be directed to run the shelter, such as charging each individual township per dog that’s kept at the shelter.
Tomah Veterinary Clinic started selling dog licenses this year to help make the process of registering dogs more convenient and to help increase revenue for the shelter.
There is talk about having more vets sell dog licenses, as well as raising the price of a license for animals that are not spayed or neutered in order to keep some type of shelter open.
The first meeting for both sides to discuss the issue is scheduled for next Monday, October 20 at 7:00pm at the Monroe County Courthouse in Sparta. The full county board will vote on the issue November 5. (WKBT)
Hmmm, the animal shelter is low priority… wonder what the animals think but them they have no voice to ever even tell us and it doesn’t seem like anyone is listening to those who are trying to speak for them anyway.
Well, it’s only a dog.. or a cat… so who cares? Believe it or not a lot of people do and if you live in Monroe County, WI and you care, don’t sit back and hope someone else will speak up! Get off your butt and get to the meeting and let the ‘powers that be’ know what you think! It’s beyond time that people stop thinking that someone else is going to carry the weight and pick up your share of the load.
Our companion animals cannot speak for themselves but you can speak for them, will you??
If people behaved like governments, you’d call the cops. ~Kelvin Throop
why don’t the officials just vote not to give themselves a raise this year. or better still, just cut their own salaries to make up the difference?
@AIR – Too bad ‘the people’ forget too often that we are the ones that give them the power…
@bernice – If it weren’t so sad I’d probably be laughing at that one. You mean just like the CEOs of all those big companies that even as they’re falling apart continue to give themselves millions of dollars in bonuses?? Everyone wants their piece of the pie and they’ll be damned if they’re going to give up anything!
THIS IS APPULLING WHO’S THE A……. WHO THOUGHT OF THIS BRIGHT IDEA. LETS PUT HIM IN THE STREET TO LIKE LIKE THESE DOGS & CATS WILL HAVE TO LIVE & SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT.