The city of South Bend this week announced new dog and cat licensing fees, with new incentives for spaying, neutering and microchipping.
For the first time in over 20 years, the South Bend Common Council in September passed an update of the city’s animal control ordinance.
Brittni Gendron is the director of the South Bend Animal Resource Center. She says the ordinance update brings city code in line with best practices that the center has adopted in recent years.
Annual pet licenses with rabies vaccines are still required but licenses are now free if you’ve had your pet spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated. All three.
“An unaltered animal is much more likely to create more animals. They tend to escape more often so there’s more running at large issues, and that also then creates more unwanted litters as well, which then overpopulates any area with animals that were not planned.”
Gendron says it can cost $125 to spay or neuter a pet but for those who can’t afford that, there are programs in the community that will partially or fully pay the cost.
