Animal activists are planning to flood the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting in Soldotna tonight, calling for a new domestic animal work group to discuss abuse issues.
A proposal to grant the Borough limited authority over animal issues was approved by voters last October, but only after absentee and questioned ballots were counted.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Member Brent Johnson helped put the advisory question on the ordinance…
Johnson: “There’s a lot of people in our borough outside of cities who are concerned about pets, the fact is that they don’t want to tax themselves. If somebody’s going to vote no on it they’re hardly going to vote yes on Prop A2, so we have all the people who voted no on Prop A1 voted no on Prop A2 and a good part of those who voted yes also voted no on the tax part. So it would seem many people would like that just to come out of the general fund, something I am not willing to do, but it is interesting.”
But animal activists say the “Yes” vote shows that most people want some form of intervention. They say that since the Borough hasn’t followed the advisory vote they are “ignoring the wishes” of their constituents.
Currently, only areas within incorporated cities, like Kenai or Soldotna, have public animal control.