There are many pieces to the county’s animal control puzzle, but the complete picture is still far from complete.

The topic came up once again at the Orchard City Town Board’s November meeting during a report to the trustees by County Sheriff Fred McKee.

McKee would be happy to get any help he can for dealing with county animal control.

The sheriff’s office will respond to reports of vicious dogs in the county and in Orchard City. But McKee believes that animal calls are best handled by an animal control officer and not by professionally trained, well equipped, and highly paid law enforcement officers.

Orchard City resident Charles Marty told trustees that the town “needs to join the real world” on the issue of animal control. The town budgeted $3,000 this year to begin dealing with its own animal control problem, but the amount was later cut to $500. Another $3,000 is in next year’s budget.

Mayor Don Suppes and Trustee Cherrie Gilliam last year were tasked with working on a program for dealing with town strays. Suppes reported that their effort has hit a snag. The town hasn’t found a place that will accept their strays.

McKee wouldn’t mind seeing the town contribute its animal control budget toward helping fund an animal control officer in his office. That officer would work Orchard City’s strays. The town is interested in pursuing its own program of helping provide a place for people to take stray and unwanted pet animals.

The county has pledged a donation of land and some in-kind support for construction of a central animal shelter facility. But the county is unwilling to fund ongoing expenses of a program, or to commit taxpayer dollars.

Delta County has several remarkably dedicated and compassionate animal welfare groups that accomplish amazing work with few resources. The county wants those groups to band together and find grant funding for building and helping operate operating a “countywide” shelter.

In multi-jurisdictional meetings earlier this year on the issue, The City of Delta and the towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss said they would probably continue with their own animal control efforts rather than participate in any yet proposed “countywide” plan.

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