Okaloosa County will be managing animal control services on its own starting this fall. But services will start small as the county waits to see what happens with the property tax amendment on the November ballot.
The county-run animal control has to be in place by September 22 when its current contract with Panhandle Animal Welfare Services expires.
The Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners was presented with three options at Tuesday’s meeting from Patrick Maddox, the county’s director of public safety, which included “animal control light,” with a startup cost of $500,000; “animal control heavy,” with a startup cost of $1.3 million and an annual budget of $2.3 million or more. The third option, deferring animal control to the Sheriff’s Office, was not recommended.
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Commissioners selected “animal control light,” and asked staff to explore options to contract with Crestview Animal Services for the north end of the county. With the “light” option, animal control will only respond to cases such as bites, animal cruelty and neglect, and livestock. The option includes five certified full-time county animal control officers, two relief officers, and support staff.
“This wasn’t a level of service we came to lightly,” said Maddox. “We have to start something now. We don’t have a choice.”
The issue first surfaced last August when PAWS was renegotiating service contracts with Okaloosa County and other municipalities. The board voted to approve a contract of $824,018, which was a 15.43% increase from the previous year’s rate. That rate is less than the animal service budgets of neighboring counties, which are over $1 million. At that meeting last year, Maddox told the board they would need to explore county-run services as PAWS was unlikely to continue animal control services in the next one to two years.
On May 1, the PAWS Board of Directors voted unanimously to not renew the county contract. Kira East, director of operations at PAWS, said the current contract put the organization on the brink of closing its doors as intakes increased.
“We repeatedly explained that costs were rising while funding remained marginally unchanged,” she said during public comments. “The county said they could do it better. Today, I challenge you to do exactly that. If you can accomplish that, every animal in the county wins.”
Costs of animal services are “astronomical,” admitted Maddox. The “animal control heavy” option was one he was looking to recommend before Florida lawmakers passed the property tax cut proposal. At that point, they “put the brakes on pretty hard.” County Administrator John Hofstad said the county was at risk of losing $13 million in the first year and $24 million in the second year if the property tax cut is approved by voters in November.
If the tax cut does not pass, Maddox said services could be scaled up. Commissioners also discussed a possible half-cent tax on the 2028 ballot to fund a more robust animal control service.
Until then, local rescues are concerned they will be on the front lines to handle the calls the county doesn’t answer. Jennifer Hagedorn, founder and president of Saving with Soul Pet Rescue of Northwest Florida, said local rescues are not trained or equipped to handle animal control issues.
“This proposal acknowledges that stray animals will still exist … that owner surrender requests will still exist, dogs and cats will still get lost, families will still have emergencies,” she said. “I don’t see a solution noted in the proposal to these issues outside of simply delegating these situations to local rescues.”
“If significantly fewer animals are allowed into the animal control system, and rescues are not able to absorb them, more animals are obviously going to be at large in the community.”
