Dog-Licensing Drive Pushed to Cut Deficit

Looking to raise new revenues, Ventura County supervisors turned to the animal population Monday to help narrow the county’s budget deficit.

During a budget study session, Supervisor John Flynn suggested launching an aggressive dog-licensing campaign to help cover the costs of running the county’s Animal Regulation Department.

He said the county could train high school students to canvass neighborhoods and register dogs, collecting a dollar or so for each one licensed.

“It seems to me that registering animals could be like registering people to vote,” Flynn said.

But Kathy Jenks, director of animal regulation, said supervisors might be barking up the wrong tree.

She said most of the money generated from a dog-licensing campaign would go right back to the seven cities that contract with the county for animal regulation services.

The county would be able to keep only the money for dogs licensed in unincorporated areas, which include many remote and difficult-to-reach ranches and homes, she said.

“It would not be cost-effective to pursue them,” Jenks said.

Further, Jenks said, if the licensing campaign does go forward, cats should also be included to help offset its costs.

“If we’re really going to go out and do a tough licensing effort, we have to include cats,” she said.

But supervisors, wary of complaints from cat owners, said they would not go that far.

“I think the subject of licensing cats is controversial. It’s just a red herring,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said.

“The real issue” he added, is that all the dogs in the county are not being licensed.

Schillo said his city, Thousand Oaks, has contracted with Los Angeles County for animal control services for the past two years and has significantly reduced its costs in part because of aggressive licensing efforts.

“We cut our costs by two-thirds,” he said.

Brenda Young, a management analyst with Thousand Oaks, said the city was paying Ventura County $170,000 for animal control services in 1993 and is now paying Los Angeles County $54,000.

She said the number of licensed dogs has doubled, from about 7,500 in 1993 to 15,000 last year. Young attributed the increase to the heavy canvassing of neighborhoods by animal control officers.

“They’re giving us services we’ve never had before,” Young said.

Jenks said budget cuts forced the county to drop its door-to-door canvassing efforts in 1991. Her staff has declined from 63 to 47 in the last five years.

With animal regulation services facing another $36,000 cut this year, Jenks said, she may be forced to eliminate another position, one responsible for promoting public education about animal care.

Despite previous cutbacks, the county still manages to license dogs through veterinarians and animal clinics, she said. Last year, more than 27,000 licenses were sold.

But Jenks told supervisors Monday that licensing dogs was never meant to generate income for the county, but rather to prevent the spread of rabies.

“I think we all lose sight of that in tough budget times,” she said.

Still, Flynn said he plans to ask Chief Administrator Lin Koester to look into the possibility of launching an all-out dog-licensing campaign.

Flynn said he is interested not only in raising revenues, but also in making sure the county is protected against a rabies outbreak.

“I think this is a health issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, Schillo said he plans to try to negotiate another contract with Los Angeles County to serve the communities of Oak Park and Lake Sherwood, both of which are in his supervisorial district.