By Jason Emerson
Editor
Dog owners in Nelson may soon be required to pay higher fees to the town when their stray pet gets recovered by the town dog catcher and taken to Wanderer’s Rest.
The Nelson town board has been approached by the Canastota animal shelter about increasing its “redemption fees” for dogs in order to be more in-line with surrounding towns. The object of the hike is to give dog owners a greater incentive to keep their pets on a leash or otherwise under control.
Nelson currently charges $10 for redemption fees — one of the lowest in the area. Other towns have increased their fees at the request of Wanderer’s Rest, including the town of Cazenovia, which changed its fee schedule last month from $25 to $40 for the first impoundment of a dog by the town dog catcher. Cazenovia retained its second and third impoundment charges at $50 and $100, respectively.
The Nelson town board agreed to hike their town redemption fee to $20 for a first offense, $40 for a second offense and $80 for a third offense. After a third offense, owners of continually retrieved stray dogs would keep paying $80 per offense within a one-year period.
The board unanimously agreed to increase the rates, with Supervisor Bradstreet and Members Jen Marti and Mike Costello saying they would be in favor of a higher rate hike as a way to better entice — and punish — dog owners with recurrently stray animals.
The board officially proposed the fee increase as a new law, and scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for its next regular meeting at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13.
