Rates may boost dog pound fees
Christchurch City .ratepayers may be asked to contribute towards keeping stray dogs off the streets.
At present the dog section of the council does not draw any funds from rates. But' Crs Charles Manning and Clive Cotton believe ratepayers, whether dog owners or not, should pay for keeping dogs off the roads. It should be a charge on all ratepayers to keep the streets clear, rather than on dog owners through dog pound fees, Cr Cotton said.
By putting pound fees up to cover the $97,411 cost of running the council’s pound, the council would be asking those dog owners who did collect lost dogs — and paid their pound fees — to subsidise those people who let their dogs stray and never bothered to collect them
from the pound, he said. Cr Manning said rates should be used to cover the $57,000 difference between pound, fees and the cost of running the pound.
To cover the costs through fees a 34 per cent increase was needed, he told the cultural and community services committee of the council yesterday. That increase would stop owners collecting their stray dogs. “You’re asking people to pay twice,” said Cr Ruby Fowler. “Once in their rates and again when they collect their dog.” If a proposed schedule of charges is approved, from April the owners of an impounded dog would pay $38.50 to get it back the first time and $60.50 for the second time within two years. A third impounding would cost $71.50 as would releasing
an impounded dog outside working hours.
The committee voted against having ratepayers meet the difference between revenue from fees and the cost of the pound. The general question of dog fees, registration and pound and capital spending to put the dog section onto computer was turned over to a sub-committee which will report to the full council. The director of environmental health, Mr David Batten, said he had been told the computerisation of the section would save $50,000. Cr Manning doubted that. Mr Batten said that from April administration overheads for the dog section would be charged to that section’s budget. In the past that had been included in over-all administration costs which were in part met from rates.
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Press, 27 January 1988, Page 6
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376Rates may boost dog pound fees Press, 27 January 1988, Page 6
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