Press - Mayors Agree to Regional Approach to Pet Overpopulation

Mayor Kathy Taylor and representatives of surrounding areas met Tuesday to discuss regional solutions to pet overpopulation and agreed to develop a plan to adopt measures that will encourage responsible pet ownership.

The mayors and city representatives agreed to work together to form a task force that will draft uniform ordinances within the next 60 days for communities to adopt in order to have uniform ordinances throughout the metro area. The ordinances would address mandatory spay and neutering of pets, prohibiting the unlicensed sales of puppies and encourage responsible pet ownership, increase awareness of services and provide solutions to animal overpopulation.

Mayor Taylor invited the city representatives to the meeting after issuing an executive order that placed a moratorium on the intake of animals from the surrounding communities for the purpose of euthanasia. The City of Tulsa Animal Shelter takes in nearly 4,000 animals a year from surrounding communities. As a result of the input Mayor Taylor received from the area communities, and in keeping with the Council’s proposed ordinance, Mayor Taylor will grant exception to the surrounding communities, temporarily lifting the moratorium and allowing them to bring animals to the Tulsa Shelter over the next 60 days at an increased fee of $15 per animal as the ordinances are being completed.

“This will allow these communities time to transition their current practices,” said Jean Letcher, the City of Tulsa’s manager of Animal We

“The long term goal here is responsible pet ownership and reduction in the pet overpopulation,” said Mayor Taylor. As we discovered, the City of Tulsa’s practice, which our office and the City Council agreed was not good public policy, we joined with the City Council and now with the surrounding communities to address it. We need to work on a regional basis to identify ways to encourage pet owners to spay and neuter their animals, discourage the operation of puppy mills and strengthen policies on the illegal sale of animals on city street corners.”

Sand Springs and Sapulpa have already made arrangements to handle the animals in their own communities, working with their local veterinarians. With that development, the number of animals coming into the City of Tulsa Shelter from other communities will be reduced by more than half, Taylor said.

“The shelter has been operating at overcapacity for a long time,” Taylor said. “This is unfair to our employees and to the proper treatment of animals. I appreciate the surrounding communities agreeing to work with their local veterinarians to address animal welfare issues, train their staffs and work on these ordinances to reach the long-term goal of reducing the number of unwanted pets and promoting responsible pet ownership.”

The task force will develop a regional marketing plan with a goal to increase pet spay and neutering and adoptions.