The bureaucracy must expand to meet the needs of mind-numbing boredom

The small room that held the Animal Advisory Subcommittee in the Animal Services building could not contain the amount of boredom therein. The four members and one guest (Director Bill Armstrong) discussed a variety of issues pertaining to animal registration compliance.

There was some controversy, the kind only noticeable by a viewer versed in the trivialities of the animal rights movement. One woman on the committee was blatantly against compulsory spay/neuter because its “unnatural” and denies freedom to animals. She powerfully rejected the accepted science that sterilization increases length of life and decreases the chance of a biting incident.

Another woman, Jane Young, rescues animals from clinics and shelters. The number of animals she talked about having must have been over half a dozen as she acts as a foster owner and, sometimes, becomes the animal’s permanent owner.

The bulk of the problem, Armstrong said, came from the huge disparity in registered pets in the county. It is a requirement that they are registered and with registration comes vaccination. In Hillsborough roughly 30 percent of cats and dogs are registered out of 600,000. Our county has one of the highest rates for animal registration. Many hover around 12-16 percent.

When the topic of separating vaccinations from registration came up, specifically the rabies vaccination, all the council members frothed at the mouth with frustration. There, I got the dog analogy out of the way. Let's all move on.

Pet registration costs $10-20 if they are sterilized, plus vaccinations. If a pet is not sterilized it costs $30-40, plus vaccinations.

For most of the two hour meeting Nick and I fretted over how they could possibly finish discussing all 28 points on the agenda in this century. Each point seemed to take 10 minutes to undergo discussion. The meeting was not even fully attended. Armstrong remarked on the several people who were absent. Who could blame them?

Armstrong himself is a powerful and thoughtful man, though. He is the director of Animal Services for Hillsborough and plays politics like no one I have seen before. He is not afraid to shamelessly dither and avoid giving his opinion. When pressed though, he relents and powerfully defends his beliefs.

The subcommittee agreed to meet again on Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m. I could not stand to do this again. It is that simple. No flowery language: a white wall is a white wall, how can one qualify its absence of defining features?

Young suggested we attend the full Animal Council meeting. The one held in an actual meeting hall, instead of a conference room. It has real parliamentary style with a Q&A session for the viewers.


Contact:
Bill Armstrong (813)-744-5660