The Jefferson County government currently spends about $10,000 per year on animal shelter services. We taxpayers are being asked, when we vote in June, to increase this spending to $265,365 per year. The proposal is that we give this money every year to a “not for profit” group, most likely the “Animal Shelter and Care Committee” which is to be run by 10, non-elected, board of director members. This group plans to find $693,000 to build a facility that will house 32 dogs and 42 cats when it is full. That is a yearly cost, after they build the building, of $3,586 per animal per year when it is full.
With the current economic conditions in the county, mines closing, price of cows in the dump and the impact of the COVID-19 virus, we can surely find a better use for our tax dollars. There are folks in the County that currently feed their kids for less than the almost $10 per day we are being asked to spend on someone’s unwanted cat or dog.
If this is a “no kill” operation, decided by the unelected board of directors, not our Jefferson County elected officials, it will be easy to have thousands of dollars invested in unwanted animals. We had a mature male cat show up at the ranch 15 years ago. He is still here. Had we taken him to this proposed shelter, the taxpayers of Jefferson County would have over $53,790 invested in this cat by this time.
