Mason asked Board of Supervisors to consider Angels of Assisi as shelter
At the Tuesday July 24 Botetourt Board of Supervisors meeting several people came to support the use of Angels of Assisi in lieu of the Regional Pound/SPCA. Norman Mason acted as spokesman for the group said Fincastle Supervisor Jack Leffel.
According to Leffel, Mason was critical of the recent alleged actions at the Regional Pound and also of the SPCA. We have a previous story about the 40 Botetourt Cats removed from the Regional Pound ten days ago. He asked the Board to consider bringing their strays, pick- ups and other animal control issue animals to AOA.
On Thursday July 26, Bill Watson the director of both the Regional Pound and the SPCA announced he resigning from the positions at both facilities effective July 31.
According to Blue Ridge Supervisor Billy Martin, he spoke up after supervisors Steven Clinton and Terry Austin made remarks following Mason about the intent of the board to have the matter looked into by county staff. “I had planned to bring the matter up under, “Other Items, but then the man from Angels spoke, so I made my remarks,” said Martin.
Botetourt County pays $158,00 per year to the pound as its share of the expenses as well as add on healthcare screenings.
Increasingly Botetourt Animal control has been taking Botetourt Animals to Angles of Assisi. In June, Lisa O’Neill of AOA had asked the Supervisors to look into what she called “tracing the flow of money.”
Currently there is an on going investigation into to the practices and finances of the regional pound and the SPCA by the Roanoke City Auditor and the office of Roanoke City Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell.
Martin said he broke down Virginia Department of Agriculture statistics about the pound particularly the kill rates of cats and also of dogs. While the pound does transfer out to agencies like the SPCA and Angels, the propensity of the animals brought to the facility are euthanized.
Martin raised the question to the Botetourt View, “Exactly what are we paying for with $158,000?”
County administration and the county attorney are supposed to come back to the board in the next two months and report back their findings, said Leffel.
July 26, 2012 - 8:47 PM
Current county budget for Animal Control $393,253 plus $158,000 for regional pound = $551,253 yearly. Tony Zerrilla, County Director of Finance and our county’s member to the regional pound board estimates 1,100 pets from Botetourt County go to the pound each year. Cost to taxpayers roughly $500 per animal.
Looking to get exact figure for last year from Animal Control. They have four road animal control officers who stay busier probably than any other employees in the county. Those four and their vehicles are on the road constantly and associated costs make up the bulk of your figures above the pound cost. Welcome to the 21st century rural/suburb type of county with cows, subdivisions and lots of different rules depending on where you live. Not to mention the rabies outbreak in the past two years. But gee–$500 per animal and we still pay $25 per sick animal. I think when the board goes to look at cuts next year instead of cuts to non profit agencies that provide services to the county elderly in particular and the library… sorry I just get carried away. We went looking for dimes instead of dollars. The budget process should be changed. Every Supervisor should be involved in every step of the process and they need to have inquiring minds and not nodding heads.
Your right the budget needs more scrunity…from supervisors and the public. You mention subdivisions and differnet rules. The county animal control should not be enforing subdivision pet ordinance only violations of county law. If subdivisions are relying on the county animal control to enforce their individual pet ordinances then the subdivisions should be billed by the county.
The county has codes and some of them they differ from place to place and most ubdivisions in this county are public just like the farmer and rural resident with no associations or covenants, just closer in proximity to each other. That huge thing called the Comprehensive plan lists all the difficulties in being rural and suburban and a whole lot more! It took the committee a year longer than expected to update it…weren’t you on the committee?