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Thursday, January 3, 2008

Editorial: Edgewood Needs Animal Control

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    Edgewood's effort to update its animal control ordinance is not only wise, but it's almost overdue.
    The entire East Mountains and Estancia Valley area has long experienced problems with loose and stray animals, and nowhere in the region is growth occurring like it is in Edgewood.
    With more people come more animals, and the potential for more animal conflicts.
    Among the aims of the proposed ordinance are tighter control of the number of dogs and cats individuals can keep and the conditions under which those animals must be housed and cared for.
    Edgewood's animal control officers, Victoria Murphy and Mike Ring, should be commended for looking at the burgeoning town and seeing an animal control disaster waiting to happen.
    Ring, who formerly worked in animal control for Torrance County, knows from experience the kind of problems that can arise when animal control regulations are inadequate.
    And most of us know how emotional things can get when government tries to impose such regulation on individuals. Few meetings of the Torrance County Commission in recent years have been as well-attended or as contentious as those pertaining to a county proposal for stricter animal control laws.
    Those emotions, in fact, have derailed past animal control reform efforts in Torrance County— which is one reason Edgewood should put the issue on the table now and keep it there until a solution is reached.
    It will not be simple, as efforts elsewhere have demonstrated. But the most critical problems rarely are.
    And if you think Torrance County has animal control problems, consider where Edgewood is heading. Torrance County will likely never see the kind of growth Edgewood is already experiencing, and the pace is likely only to accelerate in southern Santa Fe County.
    Along with that growth comes a multitude of challenges, and while animal control is only one, it's one that can often be overlooked amid the myriad other difficulties the town faces.
    By dealing with potential animal control nightmares now— by being proactive rather than reactive, as Ring and Murphy propose— Edgewood may be able to head off problems that could make its other growing pains pale by comparison.
    Animal control has never been easy in this region. But for Edgewood, it's needed, and it's needed now.