Dog Control Officers Protest Unfunded Mandate from New York State

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — On Monday, October 28th, the Animal Health Inspector, Makayla Kemmeren and Elizabeth Holmes had  a meeting about the Schoharie County Dog Control and Shelter Review with several Supervisors and Dog Control Officers (DCO’s) and several members of the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley.  

The unfunded mandate is required by New York State annually and includes, a fee of $150 for shelters, pounds and boarding kennels.  A license will be issued so the facility can operate for a year.  The commissioner shall retain a copy of the license and provide a cop of it to the animal shelter. The licensee must display the license on their website.  The intake shelter is required to vaccinate the animal with 24 hours of capturing the animal.  The vaccines are not supplied or refunded by the state. 

The meeting went over the roles of a DCO and the role of the shelter. They also went over inspection reports. They discussed licensing of dogs, license fees, seizure of dogs, redemption periods, impound fees and adoption of a seized dog.  

There were several questions from various supervisors and DCO’s about handling of dangerous dogs which is becoming a major issue in several towns.  The Schoharie County Department of Health is the governing agency.  The following steps were discussed to mitigate the situation. Discuss the issue with the dog owner and request that the animal be contained.  The Dog control officer can issue a ticket for the dangerous dog which is under the health department regulations. A dangerous dog is any dog which without justification attacks a person, companion animal, or farm animal and causes physical injury or death.  If this isn’t resolved it can go into litigation with the local judge.  There is currently no facility to handle dangerous dogs within Schoharie County.  A lot more investigation and discussion needs to be done on this.