Thibodaux chamber to host election candidates
September 16, 2014OUR VIEW: Spare the rod, spoil the child?
September 16, 2014
The Lafourche Parish Council pulled an ordinance that would have increased Lafourche Parish Animal Shelter fees, citing confusion regarding the writing of the ordinance.
Councilman Joseph Fertitta suggested the council rescind the measure and have the administration re-write it and bring it back to the council next week.
“All of those changes have to be amended. You’re re-writing the whole thing. You can’t just mark out stuff and put other stuff… It’s not written correctly,” he said at last week’s parish council meeting.
Parish President Charlotte Randolph, however, said the ordinance must be written as is to comply with the recommendation by the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.
“I understand that it appears confusing, but what’s happening here is making certain that we’re offering a better service to the people who are adopting with the approval of the animal shelter board. If we turn this in to you for the next meeting, it will look like this again,” said the Parish President.
If approved, the ordinance would increase the adoption fee to $40 for a cat and $60 for a dog and the surrender fee to $20 per animal – $30 if euthanasia is required. Additional fees would include a $5 rescue fee, a $10 redeem fee, a $5 heartworm test fee and an increase in the impound fee from $2 to $5 per day.
“It seems like it’s more expensive, but they’re actually performing the service at the shelter rather than the people that are adopting having to go elsewhere for that same service,” Randolph said.
Council chairman Daniel Lorriane expressed his concern with raising the adoption fee.
“The problem is we’re trying to get people to adopt animals, and we’re raising the prices. They can’t afford it. They’re not adopting them now when the price is down. You think they are going to adopt them [at the higher fees]? You’re going to kill more animals,” he said.
Council vice-chairman Jerry LaFont, on the other hand, said animal surrender should be free.
“What’s going to happen is with a $20 fee, they’re going to [abandon] that dog. You’re going to see more dogs and cats on the street and it’s going to become more of a parish issue than if we have no fee to surrender your dog,” LaFont said. “ … There’s a lot of people on this bayou that are not animal-loving people. They’re going to abandon dogs and cats all the time, and I think this is going to be a challenge for the parish.”
The council is expected to vote on the fee increases at next Tuesday’s meeting.
The Lafourche Parish Council tabled a measure last Tuesday that would increase adoption fees of dogs like these to $60.
