Animal shelter income slashed

By Mike Trask (contact)

Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

North Las Vegas’ recent decision to require residents to spay or neuter pets stemmed in part from a need to shrink the city’s animal control costs in the face of declining private contributions.

Janie Greenspun Gale, who has contributed more than $10 million to the region’s primary animal control shelter over the past decade, said she intends to curtail sharply the money she gives.

Gale said she will continue to provide financial support to the Lied Animal Shelter as a board member, “but I’m not going to pay for sheltering anymore. I’m not going to pay what the city and county should pay — and should have been paying all along.”

Gale said for years local governments’ payments covered roughly half of the shelter’s costs. In the past, she wrote checks to cover that gap and other routine expenses, including monthly utility bills.

“There were months when they wouldn’t have been able to pay employees if I didn’t write a check,” she said. “I was constantly writing checks. That’s not going to happen any longer.”

Christine Robinson, executive director of the shelter, said it’s time for the governments to step up. “Janie has been very helpful over the years, but it is a municipal service we are providing,” Robinson said.

Gale said she will continue as a board member and will make contributions. “But it’s going to be for animals in adoption, new beds, things like that, not basic sheltering.” (Gale is a member of the Greenspun family, which owns the Las Vegas Sun.)

The shelter spends $101.73 on each animal brought in. Las Vegas pays $50.14 per animal, North Las Vegas pays $55.91, and Clark County pays $56.07.

The other two cities in the region, Henderson and Boulder City, have their own shelters and do not contract with Leid.

The decline in Gale’s contributions will leave the center about $2 million short of its annual $6 million budget, Robinson said. The shelter will continue to receive money from other donors, as well as grants and money from other sources.

With Gale’s contribution shrinking, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and the county have begun talks about increasing their payments.

“We are literally weeks from finalizing an agreement,” Robinson said. “The public discussions have been great. The municipalities have really stepped up.”

Officials for the three declined to discuss details of the talks.

North Las Vegas is the first Southern Nevada municipality to approve mandatory spay and neutering measures. But even supporters note the ordinance will have little effect on the countywide problem unless the other governments follow suit.

About 15 percent of the 49,200 animals taken to Lied Animal Shelter in 2007 came from North Las Vegas. Clark County and Las Vegas accounted for the rest.

“Certainly a regional approach would be the preferred alternative,” Robinson said.

The county has discussed an ordinance to require sterilization of dogs and cats picked up by the Animal Control Division three or more times, said Dave March, animal control sergeant.

A Las Vegas spokesman said there have been informal discussions in city government about establishing a sterilization law.

Although some pet owners see mandatory spaying and neutering as government intrusion, people working with the animals say it’s time for such measures.

“It’s going to take everybody,” said Doug Duke, director of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, to solve the animal overpopulation problem.

Sterilization laws are on the rise across the country, although little data are available to track the trend. Henry Mark Holzer, director of the national Institute for Animal Rights Law, is compiling such information.

“This subject and these kinds of ordinances are going to catch fire across the country,” he said. “It’s a problem that’s not going away.”

Animal rights advocates estimate as many as 13 million animals are euthanized annually nationwide. Lied euthanized more than 20,000 animals in each of the past two years.

Gale said she is thrilled over the North Las Vegas ordinance because it could eventually help lower the animal population at the shelter, which takes in about 200 animals a day.

“I would love to see this adopted countywide and nationwide,” she said.

The North Las Vegas ordinance will not apply to owners with “fancier,” or breeding, permits. After it takes effect, probably in about four months, violators will face fines of up to $1,000 or six months in jail.

However, it’s unlikely that many dog owners will end up behind bars. North Las Vegas plans to check on sterilization only if a pet has problems, such as biting people, or is picked up after running away.

In other words, animal control officers won’t be going door to door looking for unneutered dogs.