Here we go again, the Clearlake City Council has canceled its contract with Lake County Animal Care & Control as of Nov. 1.

One wonders if any of our “leaders” ever do any studies or ask questions or look at the big picture. Lakeport just went through this and found out how unacceptable it was. Our police chief and interim city manager, Kevin Burke, took the time to think outside the box and found a way to get a contract back with our Animal Control.

Clearlake has no trained person to do the job, they have put a person in that position but he has no training. By law you cannot give any citations or make any decisions about putting any animal to sleep or do it yourself without going through training and getting a certificate. You also have to take any hurt animal you find to the vet and the vet makes the decision if the animal can be fixed or needs to be put to sleep. This has to be budgeted for.

So far I don’t see any preparation for making the decision the city has or really any knowledge. This is going to cause more animals to be left and dumped. They will not be taking care of the cats. So the population continues to explode and the suffering. There will be more loose dogs and if your pet gets out the chances of finding him have just gone way down.

They are not talking the whole department just this one guy. They have tied the hands of any rescue group that does trapping and fosters until they can go to Animal Control. You will not be able to trap a mommy and babies and take them to Animal Control, you will not be able to take your old or sick pet to Animal Control to be put to sleep if you cannot afford the prices the vets charge for it.

Even if you are not a pet lover, it will affect you as the overpopulation affects all of us. The truck that Clearlake bought from Lakeport is not in condition to have animals in the summer as the air condition does not work. You have to fill the water every two hours but it does not cool the cages at all. It either needs to be overhauled or replaced. We found that out in the summer.

Most of all, cities and counties need to stop cutting corners on the backs of innocent animals or people programs. We need to start being more creative. When we reach a point of no answers except to throw out the baby with the bath water then it's time as a society we rethink how we want to live.

These are elected people and they can be unelected. Call or write and tell them you expect more from them and some decisions are just not acceptable or moral.

Victoria Chamberlin lives in Lakeport. She worked with the the city of Lakeport on its animal control program.

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