Agenda

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City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

04/14/2020

BACKGROUND

The current trend, state wide, is going away from annual licensing and issued metal "dog tags" and moving toward mandatory micro chipping in pets. Metal tags are essentially 19th century technology, which can come off, get lost or be switched between animals. A microchip is implanted under the skin and is always with the animal. A mandatory micro chipping ordinance is the best possible way to ensure a lost pet is reunited with its owner. Every animal that comes in to Schertz Animal Services is scanned for a microchip. When a chip is found, staff can contact the registration company and get the owner's name, the pets name, age, as well as the phone number, address and even the email of the owner. This is the most effective and efficient way to reunite lost pets with their owners, which has already been adopted by many large municipalities such as the City of San Antonio. This ordinance was presented to the Animal Advisory Board at the quarterly meeting on February 5, 2020, and received the support of the Advisory Board.

GOAL

The goal is to adopt an ordinance that requires pets within the City of Schertz be micro chipped, while also removing the requirement for annual pet registration with the city.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

The community benefit is having the ability to quickly reunite pets with their owners. The Animal Services shelter and vehicles are equipped with a microchip scanners, allowing staff to scan for microchips. This provides the potential for pets to be returned to their owners quickly, therefore reducing animal population at the shelter. When animal population is reduced in the shelter, overall operational costs are also reduced. This ordinance also removes the requirement for pet owners to make annual visits to Animal Services to renew a license. Microchips are done once and remain for the life of the animal.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION

Staff recommends council amend chapter 14 of the code of ordinances to remove the requirement for an annual license and make animal microchips a requirement for all cats and dogs in the City of Schertz.

FISCAL IMPACT

Animal Services collected $2,254.00 in city license fees during the FY 2018-2019 fiscal year, with only 270 metal tags being issued. Schertz Animal Services will provide a microchipping service, which will help offset the small amount of revenue from the annual registration program. In FY 2018-2019, Animal Services spent $198.90 on city license tags, plus the compensated staff time associated with completing the documentation and data entry associated with completing the licensing transaction, which would now be eliminated with the passing of this ordinance. Schertz Animal Services will continue to provide microchipping services for $15.00. That fee includes placing the chip and lifetime registration with 24Pet Watch, which compared to the current $5.00 or $10.00 a year registration fee (fee varies on if spayed or neutered), is a significant savings to citizens over the life of a pet.

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends approval of first reading of Ordinance 20-H-06.

Attachments
Ordinance Micro chipping