PARKERSBURG - The Wood County Commission-appointed Task Force on Dog and Animal Control recommended cat licensing, expanding dog fees, as well as providing additional education and training on animal control issues.

The commissioners said they recently received copies of the report. Task force members included Lee Buckingham, board treasurer for the Humane Society of Parkersburg; Rob Sims, deputy animal control officer with the Wood County Sheriff's Office; Wood County Prosecutor Jason Wharton; Tracy Newberry, Parkersburg Parks Department; Norm Harris, Vienna Parks director; Williamstown City Councilman Paul Jordan; Ralph Blair, president Wood County Farm Bureau; Bob Buchanan, West Virginia University Extension Office, and Dennis Cain, representing the county commission. The report was signed by all the members except Jordan.

In September, commissioners asked the task force to develop ideas for plans, policies and infrastructure to enable residents to achieve the county's goals for animal control services based on code. The county is required to provide services relating to the control of dogs and has traditionally contracted with the Humane Society of Parkersburg to provide those services. The task force was asked to review existing code, make suggestions for programs that would minimize cost to the community; look at the relationship between the humane society and support units; control of excess, and unwanted animals; county-run and other alternatives for facilities used in other locations versus humane society-operated facilities; cost of five days care plus euthanize; cost of humane officers; average costs of additional care, and to suggest programs in addition to state code to benefit the community, and associated costs.

The report was broken into short- and long-term recommendations.

"I personally thought the task force study was pretty insightful and overviewish. They studied three different counties and looked at issues here, and they basically decided we have a pretty good situation here and we should be working with the humane society as much as we can. It was their feeling we shouldn't build our own facility, if we could work with the humane society," said Commissioner Wayne Dunn.

"In the long-term, they are recommending some changes in the state code, like implementing a cat license fee and addressing the dog fee. A lot of this, long-term, has to be solved with the state. I've talked with (Delegate) Dan Poling already about it, and he is very receptive, whatever needs to be submitted, once we decide what we want to do," Dunn said.

Dunn said he wanted the report to go out to other counties and other humane societies to spur discussion statewide.

"I'll also contact the County Commissioners' Association; get on the agenda. We need to try and educate people. One of the recommendations is for more education. The solution is not that difficult, if we just get started. By raising the fees that would also help create additional revenue for the humane society too," Dunn noted.

Commission President Rick Modesitt had no comment on the task force report.

"I've read through the report once, I'm going through it again, and looking forward to finding solutions for the animal control problems in the county," Commissioner Blair Couch said.

"The primary problems are the result of over-population and lack of funding," according to the report.

The task force recommended commissioners decide whether they want to continue funding the humane society's costs associated with the care and disposition of cats. For the long-term, the group recommended a fee be imposed on cat owners.

It was recommended the commission provide funds, possibly through grants, to develop a public animal control presentation for public education covering the problems, duties of officers, benefits of spaying/neutering, adoption of dogs and other animal control issues. The task force also recommended additional training for animal control officers, including search and seizure laws and customer service.

The commissioners were also advised to work closely with the Save A Kitty nonprofit Feral Cat Program and pursue cost-effective options to increase awareness and dog license collections. There was also a recommendation the commission seek legislative support to "update and expand the fee schedules for dogs and other animal control," including addition of a cat fee and a differential fee scale based on whether an animal is spayed or neutered.

The county is operating under the service terms of last year's contract after agreeing to pay the humane society an additional $21,972 on the existing contract to assure the agency would continue providing afterhours animal control services through June 30, 2010. The county and municipalities were notified, as of July, the society would cease providing those services, and the commissioners met with several private companies about employing them to perform afterhours services before reaching agreement with the humane society.

The county funds the humane society partially out of the general county fund and partially from the assessor's office dog tag fund. The additional money for the existing contract came from the county's cash carryover.

The society has also warned the county effective July 1, 2010, it would cease all animal control services for governmental entities if additional funds were not forthcoming. Between all the governmental entities, officials said nearly $200,000 is paid to the humane society for the services.