Proposed animal ordinance draws foes
By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com
CRYSTAL LAKE – Don’t mess with McHenry County’s pet lovers.
Almost 150 of them crammed into a small meeting room Wednesday evening to tell the McHenry County Animal Control Advisory Committee that the idea of limiting the number of animals that residents can own was a bad one. A member of the McHenry County Board had brought up the idea last year based on constituents’ concerns.
It took almost two hours to get through the people who packed the county’s Animal Control and
Adoption Center to speak, and not one supported the idea. The committee planned to mull over whether such a need exists in the county, but it has no authority to implement the ordinance, Committee Chairman Ed Varga told the audience.
But that did not ease the concerns of the sea of opponents, who disliked the concept on grounds ranging from animal rights to intrusive government. Some, like Harvard resident Gregg Rang, said that county residents were taxed and governed enough without extra regulations in place.
“This panel, the health department and the County Board do not have to do this to show us that they’re doing something,” Rang said. “Just the fact that you’re even thinking about this scares the hell out of me.”
The committee decided to table the discussion until its next meeting because of the amount of input they received. Varga handled the lengthy public comment portion with wit and humor, and the audience was civil in their remarks.
The concept of limiting the number of animals that residents can own is not uncommon in McHenry County – cities such as Algonquin, Huntley, Lakewood and Johnsburg have such laws. And except for Cook County, which leaves such matters to municipal governments, every bordering Illinois county has limits that vary widely in strictness.
Some residents murmured during the meeting that the county was considering limits for the sole purpose of keeping up with other governments.
Residents such as Bob Kunz of Lake in the Hills told the committee that people already were abandoning their pets because of the recession and any limiting law would cause more people to do so as well. He said people right now should be encouraged by government to take in strays.
“There are people going through tough times economically,” Kunz said. “There are people downsizing without the county board having to tell them to downsize.”
Other speakers said they worried that limiting animal ownership would actually run contrary to the health department’s mission because people would stop vaccinating their pets and paying for veterinary care out of fear of being discovered as having too many animals.
