Walk a mile on their paws

To the editor:

As residents and pet lovers call for the Mat-Su Borough to take more responsibility for kennel regulations, enforcement of regulations and to provide more services, two-thirds of voters have not been willing to pay for it. Only a mere 11 percent to 13 percent of all registered voters even bothered to vote.

In 2005, a bond that would have paid for expansion of the shelter and other needed upgrades was voted down with about 10,000 voting, losing 6,500 to 3,500. In 2006, a special election again proposed funding for schools, libraries and shelters had an even smaller turnout and lost 2-to-1.

In May 2007, residents came to the 2008 borough budget meeting asking for funding to improve the shelter. Testimony from residents and staff told how animals were being turned away and euthanized for lack of space. Faced with potential lawsuits for unsafe working conditions and requirements for improvements from OSHA, the assembly agreed to fund the shelter remodel with Budget Debt Service funds, explained to me as a kind of emergency fund, according to Mary Kvalheim, who was on the assembly at the time. A Frontiersman article at the time quoted Kvalheim as saying, “I’m not just talking about the animals, we are jeopardizing people here. I’m going to vote for this, I don’t care what happens.”

So what do people want? A safer environment? Safe housing and good care for animals in the shelter? We got that with the new building and fewer pets are euthanized, but with a skeleton staff and many part-time employees, we can only blame lack of enforcement of animal regulations on ourselves. If you want to help, contact your assembly person and tell him or her to support more funding for the shelter, volunteer and walk a mile in their shoes then vote for shelter funding.

Linda Henning

Publisher

Alaska Dog News

Wasilla