Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410110088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But because a grandfather clause permits owners to keep all the cats they owned before the ordinance, the problem on Campbell Hills Drive has not abated, resident Millie Butler said.
She said she counted 17 cats in her neighbor's driveway on a recent day.
"The problem is still there. They're still running on everybody's property," she said, although she hasn't called police. "By the time you'd call, they'd be gone anyway."
Since Roanoke County began clamping down on its feline population July 1, the county has licensed nearly 1,000 cats and apprehended 64.
That leaves at least 24,000 feline scofflaws living in the county without a license.
The county realized people wouldn't rush out to buy licenses. The treasurer ordered just 2,000 tags, and has sold only half.
From the enforcement end, "It's gone very well; we've had minimal problems," Police Chief John Cease said. "Never having had a cat ordinance before, I have nothing to make a comparison."
The chief said police averaged about 1,600 animal calls a month this summer, many from people wanting information about the cat ordinance.
Al Alexander, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, expects the number of cats brought in to shoot up with four officers now on the streets.
Alexander said the shelter had been bracing for an onslaught of cats when the ordinance took effect. But for much of the summer, only one officer patrolled the county, as the other officers were being hired or trained.
"We expected a significant increase," Alexander said. "But you can't expect one man to do what four were."
The 64 cats that have been captured were picked up after neighbors complained they were committing property damage. Most were euthanized.
"Unfortunately," a staff report prepared for the Board of Supervisors says, "the ordinance has become an instrument for the public to use to solve neighborhood disputes or remove stray cats."
Its cost: close to $80,000.
About $77,000 of that went to salaries and benefits for three new police officers. The four-man animal-control department was eliminated when the ordinance went into effect and a similar four-person division was created in the police department. Only one animal-control officer chose to move over to the police department.
Three new officers were hired to replace the animal-control officers, who moved to other county offices.
Those three former officers took open positions in the county that would have been filled anyway, assistant county administrator John Chambliss said, although two of the three probably came in at higher salaries than the county would have paid to new hires.
But there was no net increase in the county payroll because of the ordinance, he said, and most of the $77,000 for salaries would have been spent to fill the positions the former animal-control officers took. Two former animal-control officers joined parks and recreation, and one became a corrections officer.
Another $1,200 will be spent for training the new officers, buying cat traps and changing the markings on vehicles from "animal control" to "police." Staff hours for clerical work in the police department and treasurer's office are not included in that figure.
The county also has spent about $2,000 housing the cats - at $6 a day - at the shelter run by the SPCA, which contracts with local jurisdictions to house their stray and lost animals. But the county has budgeted only $18,000 for the year for all its animals, canine and feline. The staff report to supervisors hinted that they may have to allocate more for housing the cats.
"That's a softening of the knockout punch," said Supervisor Harry Nickens, the only one on the board to vote against the ordinance.
Nickens said he would rather spend the money on education and spaying and neutering. He said the issue may be back on the supervisors' agenda within 12 months. If national figures hold true for Roanoke County, 31 percent of households - or 25,000 households - own at least one cat.
Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix, who supported the ordinance but didn't want to spend more money on it, said, "We've got to get it done with what we've got. Don't come back looking for more money."
Minnix said the number of cat complaints he gets from constituents has dropped since the ordinance took effect.
The county expects the number of cats captured to drop next year.
"Many of the stray cats will have been caught and euthanized, and there will not be the same level of publicity surrounding the ordinance," the report says.
In December, cat owners will have to license their pets again: $5 for neutered cats, $10 for fertile ones. Licenses can be purchased for three years if the cats' rabies certificates are good for that long.
by CNB