The funds for personnel, $221,006, represents the biggest share in the proposed $535,526 program budget each year.
Based on the CNMI Dog/Animal Control Initiative program, the facility should be administered by a veterinary shelter technician, a shelter operations manager, a shelter technician and a dog control officer.
The proposed budget was prepared by the mayor’s office in collaboration with Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services, and the Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Program.
The mayor’s office said the budget includes $39,825 for staff training and professional development.
The mayor’s office said certain specialized services will be required in order to further develop and implement the dog control program through contracted service such as creating database for tracking and monitoring purposes and providing adequate training for staff to use the database.
This professional service will require $91,500.
“It is anticipated that the dog control program will need to contract out veterinary services from a doctor of veterinary medicine until a full-time veterinarian can be secured,” the mayor’s office said.
The budget also covers $100,000 for advertising, $24,745 for supplies for dogs, $6,950 for equipment, and $141,500 for “others,” including printing, communications, utilities, vehicles, fuel and maintenance.
The budget plan stated that it is crucial to have at least $100,000 in revolving funds to ensure that daily program operations continue for the health and safety of the dogs.
Based on its Aug. 2010 data, the mayor’s office will get $108,800 estimated revenues from the 10,880 estimated number of owned dogs to be registered.
But even if all owners register their dogs, the current fee schedule does not allow for adequate revenue generation to run the kennel and to successfully carry out the program.
The operation will cost over $500,000 every year and the estimated revenue is $108,800. There’s a shortfall of $400,000.
The possible solution, according to the budget plan, is local appropriations.
The CNMI total population was 48,317, according to the CIA estimate as of July 2010. Of the total population, 34,084 people were 15 to 64 years old and 27,267 of them were residing on Saipan.
Based on the estimate, 30 percent of 27,267 people on Saipan owned a dog, meaning there were 8,180 people on Saipan who had dogs.
Of the 8,180, 67 percent of them or 5,480 had one dog, and the remaining 23 percent or 2,700 people owned two or more dogs or 5,400 dogs.
Saipan had a total of 10,880 dogs.
The mayor’s office said there was no actual studies done to determine the number of stray dogs on Saipan.
But based on the estimate by a local veterinarian the figure can be between 10,000 and 20,000.
“Without adequate dog control, this number will continue to grow,” the mayor’s office said.
The budget plan suggested four key points for legislative consideration:
• Amend the law so that animal control-related fees go to a special account for the mayor’s office dog control program;
• Amend the law to allow the mayor’s office to come up with fees that are appropriate for actual dog/animal control-related costs;
• Amend the law so that current appropriation can be used for operational cost not just construction; and,
• Consider civil service status for dog control program employees.
