Kingston Town Hall
It might have been 27 degrees on the night of November 12, but it was way hotter in the Kingston Town Hall. The monthly town council meeting met in the rear part of the town hall building like normal.
However, the typical meeting turned anything but once agenda item number ten came across the podium. Vicky Gaylor, a volunteer for the Kingston Animal Shelter approached the council and pitched her idea that sent the entire room into a tizzy; to make it mandatory for every animal in Kingston to be spayed/neutered and registered with the city.
Many residents were keen to the idea of registering the pets. That way, if a pet were to get out, the shelter could look in their index of registered pets and find out who the animal belongs to. Thereby, getting the fur baby back to their family.
One resident gave her vote of approval for the idea of registering the animals. “Let’s say there’s a loose dog running around, if it is registered, we can know if it’s mean or not.”
However, residents and council members alike voiced their concerns over the second part of the proposal, making it mandatory for all pets in Kingston to be spayed or neutered.
A few residents, who are anti-mandatory animal altering brought up valid points on sporting and hunting dogs. “My concern is for sporting dogs; would we have to fix them?”
Gaylor replied that as long as breeders are registered that way, they will not be fixed. To which Kingston Officer Michael Pierce noted, “What happens when you cut a dog? They lose the drive to hunt.”
Gaylor said sporting dogs can be left out. The town attorney, Millicent Watson asked who was going to perform the alterations to the animals. Gaylor informed her that there is a clinic that could do them.
A few residents were upset because this new ordinance would force them to do something they do not want to do. “What if we don’t want to be a breeder, but want to have puppies?”
Bernd Zell of Animal Control said there was a seven-day time limit for an owner to claim their pet, or the animal would be turned over to Ardmore to be disposed of. According to Zell, his understanding was it was an ordinance that this must happen. However, then the town clerk, Darla Garrison could not find anything in the town ordinances that gave a seven-day timeline.
Zell told the council that if the ordinance changed, they could find another dog catcher. Vice Mayor Lillie Parrish tried to calm Zell down by informing him that they had to go by what the town ordinance noted. That only agitated him even more.
“Try telling that to my 1400 followers, and the TV stations, and the radio stations,” Zell said. The council tabled the agenda item to give them time to speak with the town attorney and figure out a course of action. They are hoping to have it done and ready to take action on at December’s meeting.
Gaylor took to Facebook to attempt to rally supporters. “Ok I am making a call to action! The next meeting is the 10th of December at 5:30. I need back up because a couple of people raising hell that they should be able to have puppies if they want to! It has been tabled until next month,” she posted in her Facebook post.
Before the agenda item got everybody’s tail wagging, the town council approved applying for a Capital Improvement Plan, the installation of a H.A.M radio antenna on the water tower, new bunker gear for the fire department, switching phone carriers for the police department – and saving $3,000 a year, and enlisting.