Cities, county must honor their responsibilities

Here we go, again.

Let's see, the Bonner County Sheriff's Office will no longer pick up stray dogs in the county (they used to take the strays to BTAA), because they don't want to pay for the care of the animal while it's being held.

BTAA can no longer take in stray dogs because of the costs and because none of the three entities — the city of Sandpoint, the city of Ponderay, or the Bonner County Sheriff's Office — will pony up the money to offset the costs of caring for these animals. Guess what, that means no more spaying or neutering of strays, which means it won't be too long before we see a surge in the volume of stray dogs, roaming wherever. To say that these three entities have just shed themselves of their responsibility to the taxpayer (us) because they won't cover their share of costs, after 30 years of underpaying BTAA, is ridiculous. Do you three really think the problem of strays is just going to disappear? People will find a stray on their property and take it anywhere else and dump it off, so now it's the next person's problem, ad nauseam. 

You three need to work it out with BTAA to continue handling strays and work out payment plans with BTAA. But to just do nothing with a "not my problem" attitude is going to prove more costly than if you three had stepped up and paid your share. Think about how much money you all have saved (avoided paying to BTAA) over the past 30 years.

GAIL and MICHAEL HARMELIN

Sandpoint