COLUMBIANA COUNTY Officials approve dog plan

The program's goal is to reduce the population of stray and unwanted dogs.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Adopting a dog from the Columbiana County pound will soon cost more than three times what it does now. For the higher price you'll get a better pet and save other dogs' lives, officials say.
Commissioners approved a program Wednesday that makes it mandatory that any dog adopted from the pound after Dec. 31 be spayed or neutered.
Adopted pound dogs will cost $50, with $35 going for the sterilization and a rabies shot, $8 for a dog license and $7 for pound fees.
It now costs $15 to adopt a dog.
The aim of the mandatory spaying and neutering is to reduce the number of stray and unwanted dogs deposited at the pound, which gasses unadopted canines, said commissioners and Angels for Animals.
Angels is a Mahoning County-based animal welfare organization. The nonprofit group worked with commissioners to develop the program and will perform the sterilizations.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel acknowledged that the costlier adoption fee is likely to initially reduce adoptions, leading to an increase in gassings.
Looking ahead
In time, fewer litters of puppies should produce fewer unwanted and stray dogs and, consequently, fewer dogs being destroyed, officials argue.
Angels also is volunteering to take to its Beaver Township shelter any pound dogs that are adoptable but aren't actually adopted, Hoppel said.
Unadoptable dogs typically are those too old, sick or vicious to leave the pound.
Commissioners and Diane Less Baird, Angels for Animals co-founder, said they believe the county's mandatory spay-neuter program is the first implemented by any county pound in the state.
Less Baird has said she's hopeful other counties will copy the program.
leigh@vindy.com