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Committee approves cut to dog impound fees, forwards reduced fines to council
Summary
The committee voted to lower municipal dog-impound fees — first offense to $125, second to $150, third to $175 — citing fairness and owner hardship, and forwarded the proposal to the council before adjourning.
The Middletown legislative committee voted to forward to the full council a proposal to lower dog-impoundment fees and then adjourned.
The presenter said the change is intended to reduce the financial hardship on owners who often lack the means to reclaim a seized pet. He proposed lowering the first-offense fee from $325 to $125, the second-offense fee from $350 to $150 and the third-offense fee from $375 to $175. The presenter said Marcus had benchmarked local comparisons and reported that staff from a third-party market reviewer told them the city’s fees were “quite high.”
Committee members described the change as compassionate and reasonable. One member noted that many owners cannot afford high impound fees and that lowering them increases the chance owners reclaim pets rather than losing them to the pound. The motion carried with an abstention recorded in the transcript; the presenter then moved to adjourn the meeting.
The committee did not provide a detailed roll‑call tally in the provided transcript.
