ROCK SPRINGS – City officials will look at proposed changes to pet ordinances at the Rock Springs City Council meeting on Tuesday.

One of the biggest changes is the elimination of the wording in the ordinance which states if an animal is not adopted within 72 hours of being put up for adoption, it shall be humanely destroyed unless the Animal Control Officers determine the animal’s chances for adoption warrant an extension of time and no animal shall be held for adoption longer than 240 hours. There is no proposed language to replace it.

Rock Springs City Councilman Tim Savage has been one of the leaders working on proper pet ownership in the city and is the liaison to the pet committee addressing some of these issues.

Savage spoke to SweetwaterNOW by phone Monday night and said the city has actually not put down a dog this year unless the dog was deemed to sick or too vicious to be adopted. Savage added the city has been working very closely with the Red Desert Humane Society and also the city of Cheyenne shelter and humane society to help find animals homes instead of putting animals down.

To continue to work with these other agencies, it is proposed to add language which would allow any non-profit animal rescue organization to adopt without a fee.

Another proposed change to the ordinance involves vaccination and getting animals fixed. It is proposed that all animals over 12 weeks of age will be vaccinated and alternated by animal control before they are adopted from the shelter. Councilman Savage said they have received a grant from a group in Jackson to pay the costs of this for the remainder of this year and then Rock Springs Police Chief Dwane Pacheco has added the costs for next year in his budget request to the city.

Also to help offset the costs is another proposed change. The adoption fee for any dog will go from $40 to $80 if the changes are approved. For a cat less than 12 months of age, it will go from $20 to $40 and for a cat over the age of 12 months it will go from $10 to $20.

In the proposed changes there is also a focus on licensing, especially in the penalties. Currently, there is an impoundment fee of $40 per dog and $30 per cat. While this would stay the same, a proposed addition would raise this fee to $60 for unlicensed dogs and $40 for unlicensed cats. The board fee would also go up if the changes are approved. The current boarding fee is $4 per night the animal is impounded. This would go up to $5 per night.

The only specific change to licensing fees would add a senior fee. The cost of $2 for each altered dog or cat with an owner over the age of 60 would be added to the license fee schedule.

The other major change would take the record keeping responsibility from the city clerks and make it a responsibility of animal control to maintain appropriate records. Also, instead of animal control notifying the RSPD to take necessary enforcement, animal control would handle the enforcement of those who do not properly license an adopted animal in the proper time frame spelled out in the ordinance.

Savage said the Committee on Proper Pet Ownership, including Mike Kiggens, Melinda Baas and other members have done a lot of work on these issues and they are “thrilled” about moving forward.

These proposed changes will go through first reading on Tuesday night. As per policy, proposed changes will go through three readings before the council takes action on the changes. They can either approve all the changes or amend the ordinance to accept some and not others.

To see the proposed changes go to https://www.rswy.net/egov/docs/1428012653_15777.pdf Changes start of page 475. Those wishing to address the council on the changes can do so during the petition section of the Tuesday night meeting.