Borough should share in expense of animal control

The Kenai Peninsula Borough needs to get involved in some form of limited animal control. A good starting point would be to pay peninsula cities for processing animals unloaded on their animal shelters from outside the cities' jurisdictions.

It's the right thing to do. It's the fair thing to do.

This is not adding another layer of government. It's the borough paying for a service that it has been receiving for free for too long and that cities no longer should be expected to provide.

Popular wisdom teaches that it's unwise for people to give away puppies and kittens for free, because the people who take them have no investment in their new pet. It encourages irresponsibility. If people are unwilling to pay $5 or $10 for a pet, they really don't want the animal, say the animal experts. If people have to pay something for their pets, they are more apt to consider their decision carefully and are more likely to make better humans for the animals they adopt.

The same reasoning can be applied to the borough. It's easy for the borough to act irresponsibly about animal control in other words, ignore the problem because it doesn't have to pay for its lack of action. Unfortunately, other people are namely peninsula cities and their taxpayers.

While compensating the cities for their part in animal control throughout the borough is a good and necessary step, individuals play the most important part in getting the borough's animal problem under control. And if borough residents really don't won't the borough involved in animal control in any form or fashion, they need to take it upon themselves to become responsible pet owners.

Unfortunately, people's ideas of what it means to be a responsible pet owner vary. Here's a short list of what being a responsible pet owner involves:

Responsible pet owners have their animals spayed or neutered.

Consider these numbers: A fertile dog or cat generally produces a litter or two every year. Within less than a year, those offspring themselves are reproducing. Figuring a conservative four surviving offspring a year, a female dog or cat would have 4,372 descendants by the time she was 7 years old. A male could generate about a million kittens or puppies in a decade.

It's been estimated that about $400 million is spent annually in this country destroying unwanted pets.

Responsible pet owners put identification on their pets.

The majority of animals that end up at shelters have no identification. The ID can help reunite pets with their owners quickly and avoid tragedies like a loved pet being euthanized because there was no room in the shelter. Shelters can't keep animals indefinitely.

Responsible pet owners provide their animals with plenty of food and water, as well as a safe, clean shelter from bad weather.

Responsible pet owners vaccinate their animals.

Responsible pet owners consider the cost of owning an animal.

Experts conservatively figure the cost between $500 and $1,000 a year for a small dog if nothing goes wrong.

Responsible pet owners ask themselves tough questions before acquiring their pet. For example, does the animal fit your lifestyle or will it become a lawn ornament on a chain? Why are you getting a pet?

Responsible pet owners are good neighbors. You may live in a rural setting, but can your neighbors hear your barking dogs or smell your dirty yard in spring? Are your dogs running loose and chasing moose? Are your dogs safely confined?

Responsible pet owners train their animals. Trained animals are a lot more like a member of the family. They're far more social with other animals and humans. Plus, if something happens and you can't keep the animal, it's a lot easier to place a well-behaved animal in another home. There are lots of classes offered on the Kenai Peninsula through such organizations as the Kenai Kennel Club and the Peninsula Dog Obedience Group where pet owners can get help.

Responsible pet owners seek help if they have a problem with their pets and that includes calling area animal shelters immediately when they lose a pet. The longer you wait, the more you decrease your chances for a happy outcome.

If humans always did the right thing, the borough and the cities would not be confronted with an animal control problem. But the borough sets a poor example when it comes to responsibility by choosing to do nothing. The borough mayor and assembly should be encouraged to partner with peninsula cities and pay the borough's fair share for the animals processed in the cities' animal shelters. And animal owners should show that they care for their pets by acting responsibly.