Animal control piovides an essential comniuni ty service; 

 essential froni a public healthi r*. andfjoint , in tern:E of the danger 

 of rabies c.nd the incicasinq probleni of dog bites; essential 

 economically in terms of the cost of damage oone and accidents 

 caused by stray animals, and essential in terms of the goals of a 

 humane society in the broad sense; this is, coping with the 

 thousands of unwanted animals in North Carolina. In North 

 Carolina last year, over 250, OdO dogs and cats were killed. This 

 is the equivalent of an animal Holocost [sic]. If the animal 

 facilities tnemselves were improved to meet minimum standards, we 

 as a society could devote more time and resources to the efforts 

 needed to reduce this number. 



We realize that other groups and individuals have worked on 

 revising the Animal Welfare Act itself. While this is surely 

 neeaed, at this point the Federation has concentrated on 

 gathering evidence to demonstrate that an extension of the 

 existing act to cover city and county shelters is soiej • needed. 

 We believe that an overhaul of the existing Act would be 

 extremely beneficial and would be pleased to work towards this if 

 the Committee would be receptive to such efforts at this time. 



At this point I will turn you over to Marianna Burt, our 

 Legislative Chair and Board Member, whom we can thank for co- 

 ordinating the survey eifort. 



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