From Deseret News archives:
South valley animal shelter waives fees for rescue groups
The district's board of directors voted unanimously Thursday to temporarily waive fees charged to rescue groups — $10 per dog and $5 per cat. A subcommittee will discuss making the change permanent.
"It was never our intent to deter the rescue groups," said John Borget, board member and Provo city finance director. "If we had thought the fee was going kill the deal and we'd be putting all the animals to sleep, that's not the direction we would have gone."
The South Utah Valley Animal Shelter has operated at 582 W. 300 North in Spanish Fork since May 2003, but the fees were a new development that began when the shelter started to operate separately from Utah County on Jan. 2, Borget explained.
The county no longer subsidizes the shelter. Instead, it participates along with Provo and cities to the south by making quarterly payments to the special service district.
Total operation costs for the shelter's first year are expected to be about $360,400, a little more than half of which will be covered by quarterly payments from the participating cities. The rest of the costs must be covered by fees such as pet adoptions and licensing, he said.
In an effort to cover those costs, the board settled on what it considered a nominal per-animal fee to be charged of rescue groups, which previously had been able to take animals from the shelter free of charge to save them from euthanasia.
"We really didn't sit in a meeting and say, 'This is our way to get at the rescue groups and charge high fees,' " Borget said. "We were just looking at a nominal way to help cover some of the costs of the district."
Representatives from area rescue agencies on hand Thursday told board members that the fees make covering rescue costs — already a challenge for the nonprofit groups — that much harder.
"Charging us the additional $10 may seem minuscule, but add it up," said Stephen Belcher, a volunteer with Companion Golden Retriever Rescue.
Giving the animals to rescue groups may not be the best way for the shelter to make money, Belcher said, "but it's the humane thing to do."
Rescue groups often lose money on animals they take from shelters because many of them require medical assistance and special care before they are adoptable, he said.
"We do it all out of the kindness of our hearts, out of love for the animals," Belcher said. "We want to get those animals out there and find them homes with responsible owners. That's our objective. I would hope that's your objective as well."
