Menu
Points on pets
Dear Editor,
To the mayor and City council members:
I am a long-time resident of McCook and also a long- time responsible pet owner.
I am very upset about the new ordinance you are going to pass. I was present at the council meeting Monday and it was apparent that you are going to pass this no matter what the citizens of our fine city say about this bill.
Mr. Fritch was correct in his comments on the radio Tuesday that the meeting was "clouded" by all of the talk on the number of animals allowed in the home.
The most important items on the ordinance were not even discussed.
I don't think the responsible pet owners should have to pay the price for the trouble irresponsible pet owners have caused.
Lets deal with the real issues.
1. Feral Cats
2. Vicious dogs
3. Animal control officer
On No. 1, Why can't we (the city) hire a trapper to contain these animals and save the city a lot of money and fix the problem once and for all?
On No. 2. Deal with the vicious animals as they come about. We have a police department that can deal with this issue 24/7.
On No. 3 I am totally against this recommendation to hire an animal control officer, because
a. The expense went from $56,000 to about $77000 and the budget isn't even passed.
This expense is coming at the wrong time with the economy being down. Can we really afford this?
b. Mr. Brown commented that the police department had about 800 calls on animals last year, this amounts to three calls a day at five days a week, or two calls seven days a week, what is this person going to do with the rest of the time they have?
I don't think we can justify this expense to have someone sitting around waiting for a call to pick up an animal running loose.
c. The fees are too expensive on the licensing to cover this expense. For the average family it would cost $50 for two dogs and two cats assuming they were altered and $150 if they are not.
By the way, we have a 3-year-old unaltered pet that has never had a litter.
I have a suggestion for you to consider that would make more sense and be a lot less complicated for everyone involved.
Take out these in the ordinance, 6-102,6-103,6-104,6-105,6-113.
I would like this letter be read at the next council meeting as I will be out of town and unable to attend.
To make sure this is heard I am sending a copy to the Gazette to be published.
A concerned pet owner and citizen of McCook