LICENSING: Animal welfare volunteers press for better data on dogs — and cats

By Joyce Miles
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Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Published: April 30, 2009 11:27 pm

The Common Council is considering ordering a dog-and-cat census.

Council President John Lombardi will ask the public health and safety committee to look into how a dog census is done — and whether, as the census takers are counting dogs, they should try counting cats, too.

Consideration is prompted by a Wednesday meeting of the Council and volunteers from the Willow Street-based Eastern Niagara Animal Welfare Alliance Inc.

The not-for-profit animal welfare advocacy group is attempting to raise money for a shelter in the city, as well as humane disease and population control programs, particularly for cats. Abundant anecdotal evidence suggests the stray/feral cat population is perpetually increasing all over Niagara County, according to ENAWA director Bobbie L. Mael.

The volunteers want the Council to consider ways the city and humane societies can team up to address the issues of dog/cat abandonment and proliferation. Mael suggested the city’s role could be to enforce licensing requirements and earmark the licensing fees for humane organizations.

“We’ve got to come to some consensus how better to handle this,” she said. The status quo in animal control “is burning us out.”

The state requires dogs be licensed locally by their owners. Currently, Mullaney said, about 2,100 dogs are licensed in the city.

Mael suggested there’s an average of one dog for every two residents countywide — or about 11,000 dogs in the city.

ENAWA board member Louis Budik, a veterinarian and owner of Transit Valley Animal Hospital, questioned how vigorously the city is enforcing licensing requirements.

Licensing, in addition to raising revenue for municipalities, requires dog owners to prove they’ve had their animals vaccinated against rabies; that’s a public health goal, Budik said, and the licensing record can provides authorities with valuable information when a stray is picked up or someone is attacked by an unfamiliar dog.

Licensing of cats would encourage similar basic care for them, he suggested — and the fees collected could, in turn, help support sheltering and feral cat control through catch-sterilize/treat-and-release efforts.

“If you guys can get cats licensed, you’re eons ahead of everybody else in this state,” Budik said.

State law currently does not allow municipalities to regulate cats, however. City Attorney John Ottaviano said a municipality may assist the sterilization of “owned” cats but is not allowed to seek out ferals for treatment. If it wanted to license cats, the state Legislature would have to pass a law authorizing it.

Second Ward Alderman Amanda Alexander has been asking about dog enumeration since mid-winter, when a woman was bit by an unfamiliar dog and issued a public plea for help identifying it. The dog in question was identified from a neighbor’s tip, several days after the incident.

“That dog was vaccinated (against rabies) but ... if all dogs were licensed, that woman might have had an easier time locating the dog (that bit her),” Alexander said.

Most aldermen indicated they’d back a dog census; Alexander and Lombardi, who also is an ENAWA board member, said they’re open to attempting a simultaneous cat count, too.

“It wouldn’t cost any more money,” Alexander said, “and it wouldn’t be bad to have that information