A public hearing at a commission meeting on Tuesday night seemed to be a battle between animal lovers and non-animal lovers. The hearing was to consider a proposed tax increase by Davis County Animal Care of 57.02% to cover operational needs of a new facility that will be three times bigger than the current building. The building itself is already paid for. The tax on a $578,000 residence would increase from $22.57 to $35.44 which is approximately $12.87 per year.

Before public comment began, Commissioner Randy Elliott gave some background information on the funding for Animal Care.

“This is actually a city function,” he said. “About two years ago the county and city managers got together to decide what should be done. Before that it was broken out into cities paid for half and the county paid for half.”

It was never very clear on how much of that was going to animal care, said Elliott. “We said we could do several things. One, open up a special service district. That could balloon this by several million dollars I’m sure because you’d have to have your own HR, staff, IT. So it was decided by city managers to go out and seek a tax rate through the state legislature so we could be transparent on our taxes about how much money was going to animal care.”

The building has been in disarray for many, many years, he said. “The cities never wanted to pony up any money for that. So the county within ourselves, within our budget – we have been very frugal within the county – we’re coming up with the $16 million to be able to build this building.”

Yes it’s taxpayer money, said Elliott. “But we didn’t go out for a general obligation bond, we didn’t go out for any other bonds so we didn’t put any more burden on the taxpayers, we said we’ll take the burden upon ourselves. We’ll find the money within.”

“This is the first tax increase that animal care has seen or the county has seen since 2017,” said Animal Care Director, Ashleigh Young. “This is to help support operational expenses, a small amount of capital expenses for some of our vehicles that are well over 100,000 miles and some new staff positions as we head to a new building.”

“Less than $15 to support the shelter is worth it,” said a Bountiful resident. “I went to Culver’s and spent $15.46 on two kiddie meals. I think that the free resources the shelter offers, to raise taxes by $15 is a bargain. This is something animals can’t do for themselves.”

“My question is, does the county offer similar services to people who are homeless?” said Ron Mortensen. “It does look like the county is pushing animals over humans. Does the county put animal welfare above that of humans? If you are going to increase taxes shouldn’t that be for taking care of humans who are in need rather than animals that are already being taken care of and have a strong support base as we’ve seen tonight?”

“It’s a choice to own a pet,” said another resident. “They (owners) need to bear the financial burden.”

Some residents complained that animal control was not taking responsibility for the raccoon problems in their neighborhood.

“In 2019, before my time with Animal Care, the mayors and city managers convened with the commissioners to address this issue,” said Young. It was determined that one of the reasons Animal Care would no longer handle raccoon-related calls is:

• Excessive call volume straining resources:

At the time, Animal Care was responding to several thousand raccoon-related calls annually with only 10 Animal Control Officers on staff. This overwhelming call volume severely hindered our ability to respond to urgent and state or county-mandated responsibilities, including aggressive dog incidents, stray dog calls, and neglect or cruelty cases, in a timely manner.

Young said they hope to have the new facility started in the spring. “It will probably be about an eight month build time. We have a prefab structure that will cost less.”

Commissioners will vote on the tax proposal at the next commission meeting on Dec. 10. “Animal Care remains committed to its core function of safeguarding public safety and ensuring the welfare of domestic animals in our community,” said Young.λ