ODA proposal could raise license fees for hundreds of animal rescue organizations

Animal rescue organizations across Oregon could soon be paying thousands of extra dollars in license fees. That’s according to a proposal from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which oversees the organizations. The new fee structure would charge rescues and shelters based on the number of animals they take in per year. Nearly 200 people testified against the changes at a hearing last month, saying the tiered structure would disproportionately impact smaller organizations. ODA is accepting public comments on the proposal until March 15.

Karen Green is the executive director of Cat Adoption Team, the largest cat-specific shelter in the Northwest. Beverly Beach is a volunteer for Cat Utopia, a foster-based rescue in Eastern Oregon. They both join us to talk about how the proposed changes could impact their services.

Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Animal rescue organizations across Oregon could soon be paying thousands of dollars more in license fees. That’s according to a proposal from the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) which oversees these organizations. The new fee structure would charge rescues and shelters based on the number of animals they take in every year. Nearly 200 people testified against the changes at a hearing last month, saying that the tiered structure would disproportionately impact smaller organizations. ODA is accepting public comments on this rule through Friday. Karen Green is the executive director of Cat Adoption Team (CAT), the largest cat specific shelter in the Northwest. Beverly Beach is a volunteer for Cat Utopia, a foster-based rescue in Eastern Oregon, and they both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.

Karen Green: Thanks for having us, Dave.

Beverly Beach: Thank you.

Miller: Karen, first, this program deals with what are known as animal rescue entities. What are organizations that fall under that term?

Green: It can start with any individual or organization that’s caring for 10 or more animals at a time in one location and raising funds for the purpose of doing that work.

Miller: So all the way up to The Humane Society?

Green: Absolutely.

Miller: So there’s a huge spread there.

Green: Yes, exactly. It can start with one person doing some rescue work out of their home. And yes, up to The Humane Society.

Miller: What were your initial thoughts when the Oregon Department of Agriculture - which is the regulator here - when they said they were going to set up a licensing program for animal rescues to make sure that they were doing good work?

Green: The Animal Rescue [Entity] Licensing Program was first set up in 2013. We felt like, and I felt like it was a really good move in general for animals in the state of Oregon. I think it is imperfect legislation, but there are a lot of people who get into the work of helping animals. And because there are so many animals in need, in some cases, unfortunately, people do become overwhelmed and end up unable to provide the needed care for those animals. So having some regulatory authority making sure that organizations that are providing these services and raising funds for them are able to do that in a responsible way, I think it is important. I think there are improvements that need to be made to the rules and some of these proposed changes to the rules have some issues.

Miller: Let’s turn to those. Beverly Beach, let’s start with the financial one. Do you have a sense for how much Cat Utopia would have to pay each year if these rules are finalized?

Beach: Yes. Due to the number of cats we rescue in Union and Umatilla counties, we would be paying as much as The Oregon Humane [Society] and any large rescue out there, because we fall in that 500 to 1,000 animals. So we go from paying $375 a year to about $2,500.

Miller: So, because you have, over the course of a year, at least 500 animals you take in, you are in the large category, even though...How many animals might the largest shelters or systems take in?

Beach: The largest shelters or systems take in anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 animals, which is a lot. And a lot of our animals, we transfer to those larger organizations. That’s one of the issues we have. We may take in 775 cats, but we transfer to large shelters over 400 of those.

So those animals are being counted twice in their intake numbers the way they want to set it up,

Miller: Because they’re passing through from places with a lot of cats, but few people to adopt them to a place with a lot of people who want to take cats into their homes, in the WillametteValley. So what would the $2,500 annual fee mean for your organization?

Beach: Well, it would be $2,500 less that we would be able to spend on our animals, which would be, say, two months worth of our veterinary bills, maybe 35-40 animals we could not TNR anymore, which is Trap-Neuter-Release for ferals. So it would be a big impact. We really try hard with our donors’ money to spend 100% of it on the animals.

Miller: Karen Green, that’s one issue that I understand you and others and Beverly basically are saying. If there is going to be a tiered structure to actually have more tiers, and to break it out even more so that there’s an even higher fee, I guess, for the much larger organizations - those organizations even like yours that could afford to pay more. Not that you necessarily want to pay more, but you don’t want the smallest ones to have to pay so much. Did I put that the right way?

Green: Yeah, we think that if there’s going to be a tiered structure, the tier currently maxes out at organizations handling 1,000 animals a year, and that’s how it disproportionately impacts the smaller organizations. But, really at the heart of it, the issue is that the program is structured to be funded by licensees, which is how a lot of license programs are structured. If you go get a business license, licensees are paying for the oversight of that license program.

But animal rescue entities are providing a community service, and they function more like health or human service agencies that are contributing something to the community. They shouldn’t be responsible for paying for the privilege of providing that service, when they already are providing a service. To have to pay thousands of dollars to be licensed to do something that is already charitable work, that contributes to the community is unreasonable.

We think that a license fee is not inappropriate. A few hundred dollars makes sense. But organizations and especially organizations the size of Cat Utopia should not be paying $2,500 for an annual license fee. We believe that the state should be paying for the bulk of the cost of running the animal rescue entity licensing program.

Miller: When you say “you,” you mean taxpayers. I should say this is not the Oregon Department of Agriculture that set this up. They’re putting the rules together based on what lawmakers said to do. And it was lawmakers who said, well, let’s have these animal rescue operations themselves pay into the regulation of their systems.

My understanding, just briefly, is that there’s another area in these rules that has caused some concern. Beverly, this has to do with the possibility of inspections of foster homes. What is the issue that is concerning you?

Beach: We’ll probably lose foster homes if we tell a foster upfront, oh, yeah, the state might come and inspect you. We are pretty good about knowing what’s going on in all our foster homes. We’re in communication. We are there administering shots to kitties, taking kitties from the home to get them fixed. We know what’s going on in these foster homes. Just last week I went to a foster home and pulled a cat, and we do police our foster homes. We won’t be using that foster home again. It was a big uproar in the Zoom meeting with The Department of Agriculture. A lot of foster based rescues are very scared about this. It’s hard enough to find people willing to foster animals. This will just make it harder.

Miller: Karen Green, in the bigger picture, what is the animal rescue landscape like these days since the pandemic?

Green: It’s been really challenging. In Oregon and across the country, animal welfare organizations have been overwhelmed by increased need the past several years, and that’s due to reduced spay-neuter access during the pandemic, lower rates of adoptions - especially for medium and large dogs. A national shortage of veterinary professionals, changes in services offered by municipal animal services and other factors.

Then, animal rescue entities are also facing the impacts of economic factors on their costs and increased costs and on their ability to raise funds, as well as nationally declining volunteer rates. So one of the things that was challenging with this is that the timing of these rule changes, with the steep fee increases and then the fears that they’ll impact animal rescue entity’s ability to attract and retain foster families has hit especially hard, in particular for smaller organizations.

Miller: Karen Green and Beverly Beach, thanks very much.

Green / Beach: Thank you, Dave.

Miller: Karen Green is the executive director of CAT - Cat Adoption Team. Beverly Beach is a volunteer at Cat Utopia. She focuses in Union County.

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