Dog fees increase to standard rate

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The Fayette County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution recently increasing dog adoption fees and bringing them to a single standard rate for all adoptions.

It was moved by commissioners Tony Anderson and Jack DeWeese to increase the adoption fee at the Fayette County Dog Shelter to $80 effective Jan. 1, per the recommendation of Fayette County Dog Warden Bruce Denen. According to Denen, in the past the fee for adopting was varied for a multitude of reasons. For instance it costs more to spay a female dog than it does to neuter a male dog, and the adoption rates would reflect these minor differences. Denen also said some new owners would also have to pay additional money at the veterinarian’s office after the procedure, making the costs different for each citizen adopting a pet.

“We want to ensure that all dogs we adopt are either spayed or neutered,” Denen said. “That’s what this whole thing is about. We are going to standardize the fees and any additional fees that are not covered by adoptions, Mars Corporation is going to help us create a fund for donations to pick up any extra fees. This means the citizens will not have to pick up any extra costs of the spay or neuter.”

Denen said they looked at the numbers to determine what would be the best fee. He said it is not that much of an increase as females cost around $76 for adoption and males were around $63. The new fee includes a covered spay or neutering, vaccinations, license and the kennel fee.

“It is a one-year license and it would be for the year you adopt the dog in,” Denen said. “The vaccination is called a five-way that covers distemper, parvo (parvovirus), as well as a couple lesser infections that we see a lot of dogs come in with. Routinely, when a dog gets in we give them the five-way to kind of protect our population so we don’t end up with dogs infecting one another. Our costs on that is about $5.60 so we just have a standard fee of six dollars for every dog we give a shot.”

Currently, the dog shelter has 19 kennels and a few smaller cages in the garage for smaller dogs. There are seven dogs as of Thursday at the shelter, all pit bulls.

“The ultimate goal is to get all the dogs spayed and neutered,” Denen said. “When we adopt a dog out that is not we end up dealing with their puppies later on, and if we can cut down the number of unwanted puppies we will be better off. The Fayette Humane Society started a spay and neuter program for dogs and cats a long time ago and that has helped significantly keep the strays down. This is just our way of trying to do that too.”

For anyone interested in rescuing a dog, visit the Fayette County Dog Shelter at 1550 Robinson Road in Washington Court House. For more information call the dog shelter at (740) 335-6630.

http://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/12/web1_BruceWithDog.jpg
New adoption fee, Mars Corporation covering costs of spays and neuters

By Martin Graham

[email protected]

Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy

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