Lexington County makes headway on dog overpopulation but could lose spay & neuter vouchers

Lexington County could lose a valuable tool in its fight to control the pet population.

About two years ago, Animal Mission, a local nonprofit which has provided vouchers to help residents pay to spay and neuter animals since 2006, extended that service into the county that sits across the Congaree River from Columbia. But while individual donations have consistently floated the Richland program, Animal Mission Executive Director Jen Coody said that hasn’t been the case for Lexington.

“We have to work hard for those donations,” she said. “I’m getting ready to hit year two in Lexington, and I have just found the saddest, minimal amount of support for it. And I think a lot of it might just be people don’t know about it, but there’s certainly no shortage of people trying to use the vouchers.”

Coody was able to drop off another 1,500 vouchers to Lexington County Animal Services earlier this month, but it’s unclear if the program will be able to keep going in the area.

“It will continue to be in jeopardy until the support from the community can help carry it,” the executive director said. “So far, that support hasn’t materialized, and eventually tough conversations will have to happen about whether we can carry it beyond this round of investment.”

Combating the overpopulation of pets in Lexington has proven a tall order, said Brittany Jones, who has served as the director of the county’s animal services for about a year and a half. She joined the local government organization as a kennel tech 10 years ago after graduating Lexington High School.

Losing the vouchers, which provide discounts between $30 and $75 depending on where people use them, would be a blow, Jones confirmed.

“This helps the citizens that are struggling and the citizens that aren’t struggling,” she said of the way the program reduces the barriers to do what the county already requires and spay or neuter your animal. “If you can show me that you’ve made an appointment and you’re making an effort to get your animal sterilized, here’s a voucher.”

Combating overpopulation

As in many places, Lexington County Animal Services is already struggling to keep up with the volume of dogs coming its way. Between January 2023 and August 2024, the shelter, which can responsibly hold 128, saw its monthly intakes never slip below 291, spiking above 400 six times, including a high of 478 in July 2023.

During that time, the monthly euthanasia rate never slipped below 24%, with three months exceeding 40%.

At Jones’ urging, the county has been taking steps aimed at tackling overpopulation.

Last year, the county imposed restrictions on who is allowed to breed, hoping to cut back on “backyard breeders” who often produce dogs that end up on the street.

This year, the county adopted an ordinance requiring pet owners to get their dogs microchipped, so they can more easily be identified and returned should they end up at a shelter. There are also other benefits to all dogs being microchipped, Jones said. That requirement took effect in July.

“If you were to get attacked, and that animal was a stray, there’s no one to hold accountable,” she said. “But if it’s microchipped or has some sort of identification, that animal goes in as owned, and we have that way of contacting the owner and holding them responsible. So you can get your medical bills, your restitution, whatever the case may be, sorted out. Rather than a lot of our stray attacks go nowhere, unfortunately.”

Towns and cities in the county are in the process of choosing whether to get in line with the microchip requirement, which they have to do if they want the county’s animal services to keep covering them.

The requirement has met with some resistance. Some members of Lexington Town Council pushed back on the measure, questioning if it amounts to government overreach. The town, the largest municipality in the county with about 25,000 residents, ultimately ratified the animal services agreement including the microchip requirement.

Jones pointed out that several affordable options for getting dogs microchipped exist. Her agency will do it for a flat $10 fee per dog. Local nonprofit Pawmetto Lifeline provides free microchipping for pit bulls and pit mixes and charges $30 for other breeds.

The importance of education

For the county’s animal services director, getting buy-in on the microchip requirement comes down to what she says is the crux of curtailing pet overpopulation in general: education.

As she told Lexington Town Council in early September, 100 fewer animals were euthanized between July 1 and Sept. 1 compared to the same period the year before, when microchips weren’t required.

When people are made to truly understand the rate at which animals are being euthanized and the amount to which efforts like microchipping can help, Jones told The State, they’re more likely to do what they can to keep animals from ending up on the street.

To that end, she’s hoping to involve the community more directly. Jones is working to soon begin volunteer and foster programs through Lexington County Animal Services. These initiatives would allow the shelter to bolster its workforce in the face of increased adoptions and create more avenues to responsibly house pets while they seek forever homes.

And hopefully, by the time these efforts come online, animal services will have an updated shelter. A $69,000 renovation to the facility on Ball Park Road is underway to fix damaged fencing, remove porous floors that can trap dirt and germs, add paint that holds up to chemicals used in cleaning, and upgrade the doors that go down to separate the dogs from their outside areas.

Bringing in volunteers to see the improved facility and the agency’s efforts to keep up with overpopulation issues will help spread awareness of their efforts and why measures such as the microchip requirement are needed, Jones said.

“They’ll be able to see the day-to-day operations and interact with the animals,” she said. “They’re going to leave here, and they’re going to be like, ‘I went to Animal Services, and I’ve read this online, but this is actually what’s going on.’”

This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 10:06 AM.

Jordan Lawrence

The State

Jordan Lawrence serves as metro editor for The State. He has worked for newspapers in the Columbia area for more than a decade, having previously served as the lead editor for Free Times and the Lexington County Chronicle. He has won several South Carolina Press Association Awards, including recognition for breaking news reporting, business reporting and arts and entertainment writing. Support my work with a digital subscription