County to pay city $900k for health, environmental services
El Paso County on Thursday agreed to pay the city nearly $900,000 this fiscal year for various health and environmental services.
More than one-quarter of that bill will be for animal services.
The timing is perfect — the City of El Paso’s animal services shelter sees an influx of strays after the Fourth of July, because dogs often get scared of fireworks and run away. A veterinarian at the shelter recommends keeping pets indoors if there are fireworks in the area, to keep Rover from becoming just another statistic.
“Right now during the summer, we’re euthanizing over 100 animals a day. It’s a problem. It’s a big problem,” said City of El Paso Environmental Services Director Ellen Smyth.
The city’s animal services shelter is the only one in a six-county area, Smyth said. From September through May, about 2,000 strays were brought there by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office — nearly 80 percent of those had no tags.
“If you go out into the unincorporated areas of the county, you will see feral dogs everywhere,” said County Judge Veronica Escobar.
The city charges the county $85 to keep untagged animals for three days before putting them down. Cats and dogs with tags or microchips are held for six days, at a cost of $115 to the county — unless the owner claims the animal and pays the bill.
“They should be held accountable for their pets, and they should pick up the liability and cost on any inconvenience to the taxpayers on their pets,” said County Commissioner Sergio Lewis.
Lewis expressed concern that the city and county have no ordinances allowing them to prosecute owners who don’t pick up their pets when contacted.
But shelter veterinarian Dr. Marilyn Christensen focused her attention on population control.
“The only way to do that is to have a large portion of the population spayed or neutered,” Christensen said.
Christensen said to contact the El Paso Animal Services Shelter to adopt a pet. Cats and dogs generally cost about $60, and those animals are already vaccinated — and spayed or neutered.