Briefly in the news

The debate over what to do with strays in Huntington Beach continued

this week, when the City Council voted to extend its contract with the

County of Orange for animal care services.

Strays picked up in Huntington Beach are currently brought to the

county shelter in Orange. The city agreed to pay nearly $500,000 for

these services through the end of June 2002.

While this agreement doesn’t ruffle any feathers of opposition,

members of an organization called Save Our Strays do feel that city

officials are ignoring their desire for a city-run shelter.

A committee charged finding the best way to deal with surf city’s

strays presented a report to the City Council Monday night.

The Animal Care Services Subcommittee, chaired by Mayor Pam Julien

Houchen, stated in its report that it would be feasible for the city to

provide humane animal care services and that a study by Meyer & Allen

Associates to build and maintain a pro-humane animal shelter in

Huntington Beach, overestimates the cost to provide the pro-humane animal

services.

“The study is for the Rolls Royce of animal shelters, we don’t need

something like that,” Julien Houchen said. “We’re waiting to see the

county’s long-term plan for the future. We will meet once we get the

proposal.”

Establishing a new humane animal shelter in Huntington Beach would

cost the city $2 million per year according to the Meyer and Allen study.

Save Our Strays of Huntington Beach, a nonprofit all-volunteer

organization formed in 1999 with hopes of bringing a city-owned

pro-humane shelter to Huntington Beach, also disagrees with the study.

“I have grave disputes with the study such as the operating costs of

$2 million a year,” said Save Our Strays President Karen Chepeka. “Other

shelters like those in Mission Viejo and Irvine run shelters for less

than half that amount.”

Although the group felt $2 million was an inflated figure, it still

felt a shelter would cost more than the $500,000 currently paid to the

county.

This is where Save Our Strays disagrees.

“We think the annual operating costs would be the same as the city is

currently paying now,” Chepeka said. “We’ve offered to raise money to

build the shelter but the city hasn’t given us approval, so we’re in a

difficult situation. This is a community want and the council seems to

disregard that, and it’s not right.”

Julien Houchen said she would like to see the shelter built, but has

to go by the Meyer study at this point because it is all she has.

“As a pet owner and lover, I would love to see [Save Our Strays]

succeed, but as a city leader, I have to look at the bigger picture,” she

said. “We’re waiting for the long-term county proposal and if Save Our

Strays comes up with any ideas, we’ll entertain those as well.”

The Humane Shelter on Newland Street currently caters to Huntington

Beach residents, but the strays the organization takes in come from

Westminster and Costa Mesa.