County Creates Committee To Promote Animal Welfare

Supervisors Narrowly Vote for Advisory Panel

A two-year struggle to create an animal advisory committee in Prince William County ended Tuesday with a win for animal activists.

On a 5 to 3 vote, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved the formation of the Citizen Animal Advisory Committee to help address animal welfare in the county. Supervisors Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville) and Michael C. May (R-Occoquan) cast the dissenting votes.

"It was a long road to get to the approval of this," Prince William SPCA President Melissa Korzuch said. "Even though we worked hard to get here, there is more ahead and we are looking forward to doing whatever we can. I think this is a good day for animals in Prince William."

The idea of a committee was raised more than two years ago by animal advocates who wanted to help an aging shelter that didn't have enough resources to maintain its growing animal population. The shelter was donated to the county more than 30 years ago and has had only minor updates as the county has grown.

The committee will be advisory in nature, not an administrative or oversight group, and members will be appointed by supervisors. The 13 appointees, who will include pet owners, veterinarians and a member of the Prince William SPCA, will promote animal welfare, look for outside funding sources and advise supervisors on ways to improve animal-related policies. Korzuch said she also hopes the committee can secure the creation of a dog park in the county.

"I think this is going to bring much-needed improvements to the aging shelter," Korzuch said. "We don't know what this committee has the capability to do, but nothing is going to improve here unless we do this."

The resolution passed Tuesday included some amendments, which ask that the committee be reviewed in a year, understand the county's fiscal constraints by not considering matters requiring excess funds and limit its comments mainly to domestic animals.

"The SPCA came forward and said, 'We can do a better job within existing funds,' and I want to take them up on that," said board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large). "We all know we can do a better job and euthanize fewer animals if we spend more money. The question is: Can we do it within the current budget?"

Supervisors who voted against the ordinance said that although they recognize that the shelter staff needs help, they were concerned that the committee would be a financial burden on a strained county budget. They also questioned the need to form a board-sanctioned committee to get people to volunteer to promote animal welfare.

May said he thought that creating a public-private partnership with the SPCA would have been an acceptable way to address animal welfare in the county, to take advantage of the resources the SPCA has.

"The majority of the board saw things differently, so now it's time to move forward and work with the new committee to improve animal welfare in Prince William County," May said.

Animal activists said one reason they stressed the formation of the committee is to reduce the number of animals euthanized at the shelter and encourage more adoptions.