You may have read in the AllOtsego
Weekly Update that one of the week's three “Top Stories” was that
the County's Health and Education Committee, which I serve on,
decided that “Animal
Shelter Won't Get $100,000.”
That sounds a little harsh, of course –
how could we not resist helping all those cute pets? Heck, the 16
year old cat currently on my lap came from the shelter as a kitten.
The truth is, that the Susquehanna
Animal Shelter – which has no connection with the SPCA or the
ASPCA, and receives no support from them – came to the H&E
Committee, out of the blue, at exactly the worst time possible. The
Board and all its committees are making extensive efforts to find
every stray dollar to cut, in order to end up with a balanced budget
in December. So – adding something new to the budget for next year
is just not on the table, anywhere.
I happen to believe that the Shelter
provides an important service to nearly all County residents:
finding good homes for stray animals; managing the stray population
in the county; preventing overpopulation and the eventual increase in
strays that overpopulation would create. The Shelter has a hands-on
Board and (probably) underpaid staff members who keep things going on
a shoestring. It's a service that I think the citizens of Otsego
County might be asked to share the cost of, by providing them an
allocation in future years.
So, as a member of the H&E
Committee, I couldn't help right now (although we all encouraged them
to come back next summer, at the beginning of budget time), but as a
citizen of Otsego County, I could: I sent them a donation as soon as
I got home. I recommend that everyone consider doing the same.
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