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Public speakers at County hearing push for funding, spay/neuter and flexible donation rules for shelter
Summary
Four public speakers at the June 26 St. Louis County Committee of the Whole meeting urged council members to back fee-waived adoptions, easier acceptance of donations and a robust spay/neuter program to reduce shelter population pressure and improve outcomes.
Four members of the public addressed the Committee of the Whole on June 26 and urged immediate policy and funding changes to support the county animal shelter.
Shannon Blatzky, a master’s-level shelter medicine professional, told the council she supports fee-waived and reduced-fee adoption policies and specifically urged approval of Bill 41 to allow fee-waived adoptions and Bill 116 to give the shelter greater flexibility to accept grants, gifts and donated services. Blatzky said such tools are “an accepted and encouraged practice in current shelter medicine and management” and noted that changes that reduce shelter population are among the fastest ways to reduce euthanasia pressure.
Cynthia Anderson pressed the council to fund a countywide spay/neuter initiative and to consider raising the county limit on dogs per household (currently three dogs, five total pets in county code, she said) to match neighboring jurisdictions. She argued that preventing litters is more cost-effective than continually housing unwanted animals and asked for a clear breakdown of any requested emergency funding.
Dr. Carl Schenker, who serves on the county health advisory board, asked the council to explain to the public why the county took shelter operations back from the APA and to provide more clarity on whether outside experts have been engaged to evaluate the program since the takeover. Ed Goldsboro briefly asked the council not to use Rams monies for shelter needs and said South St. Louis County residents and animals are underserved.
The speakers asked the council to act on two pending measures: Bill 41 (fee-waived adoptions) and Bill 116 (flexibility to accept grants, gifts and donations). Council members indicated they would consider these requests and noted that staff had recently provided some donation acceptance authority for certain items (council members referenced a machine accepted earlier in the week under separate legislation). No formal votes on the bills were taken during the hearing.
Quoted public comments
"There are studies that support reduced and fee waived adoptions, and there's no published evidence of detrimental effects to the animals," Shannon Blatzky (master’s in shelter medicine).
"It is much cheaper and more ethical to spay and neuter your way out of the problem than to continually house the overwhelming amount of unwanted animals," Cynthia Anderson, resident and advocate.
Ending
Council members said they would review the differing proposals, examine budget requests and consider targeted policy changes; staff indicated they would supply records and follow up on the committee's document requests.
