COLUMBIANA COUNTY Neuter, spay plan awaits legal opinion

Reducing the number of stray and unwanted dogs is the proposal's aim.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- An effort to implement a plan that would strongly encourage spaying or neutering dogs adopted from the Columbiana County pound is stalled but not abandoned.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel, who is overseeing the effort, said Thursday that he is still awaiting an opinion from the county prosecutor's office regarding the legality of the plan, which was first publicized in February.
Being proposed is requiring people who adopt dogs from the pound to put down a deposit when they take the animal.
The money would be reimbursed when the person adopting the animal provides proof that it had been spayed or neutered.
Details of the plan, including the deposit amount, have yet to be worked out, said Hoppel.
Details await
The plan's specifics and whether it eventually will be adopted depend largely on advice received from the prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Robert Herron was unavailable Thursday.
Requiring people who adopt dogs to put down a deposit that's refundable only if the dogs are rendered unable to reproduce will help reduce the number of stray and unwanted dogs in the county, Hoppel said in explaining the reasoning behind the program.
Cost of spaying or neutering is about $70 to $80.
If more adopted dogs are rendered unable to reproduce, it eventually will decrease the number of animals that end up in the pound and are destroyed.
Many dogs destroyed
Dogs that aren't adopted are gassed. In 2002, 777 dogs were destroyed. That's more than twice the number of dogs adopted last year from the pound.
As things stand now, people are able to adopt dogs from the pound by paying a $15 adoption fee, which includes the $8 cost of the dog license.
The pound also gives the new owners a voucher from Angels for Animals, a Mahoning County-based animal charity organization.
The voucher helps pay the cost of spaying or neutering. But Hoppel said many of those who adopt dogs from the pound aren't using the vouchers.
A deposit would serve as a stronger incentive to have the procedure done, he said.