By Jasmine Allen and Ben Brown
On Wednesday April 14th, a new change for Chesterfield’s animal shelters went under its first consideration.
A public hearing took place among the county’s Administration Board of Supervisors regarding the approval of a partnership with The Richmond Animal League and the SPCA.
Chesterfield County opened up a bid to various companies that would provide spaying and neutering services. The Richmond Animal League agreed to provide these sterilization services.
The proposal states that the adopters will pay $60 instead of the current $10 fee to cover the expense of pre-adoption sterilization.
County Administrator, James Stegmaier, describes how Chesterfield adopters are required under the law to provide sterilization services themselves but had a “level of non-compliance”, which resulted in stray animals.
Like any other animal shelter, Chesterfield’s shelter sometimes transfers numerous dogs and cats to the Richmond SPCA that are without housing.
One other factor about the shelters that differs from the Richmond SPCA is their stance on euthanasia. Shelter Manager Alice Berry of the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter, reassures that “no healthy animal is euthanized.”
The goals of the proposed partnership are: to ensure that there are no more homeless animals than there are enough shelter facilities, to gradually transform Chesterfield animal shelters into no-kill organizations and overall save the lives of every healthy and treatable animal in the community.
