State auditor says dog law enforcement needs more funding

According to Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, the Dog Law Enforcement Bureau could be out of money by this summer.

• Katie Meyer
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  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Marie Cusick/StateImpact Pennsylvania

Outgoing Auditor General Eugene DePasquale discussing one of the many audits he has conducted over the past seven years.

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s Auditor General is telling lawmakers that the commonwealth needs more money to impose dog laws.

He’s following up on a previous audit of the Dog Law Enforcement Bureau, a little-known office within the Agriculture Department that ensures the welfare of dogs in kennels and boarding facilities and oversees licensing and rabies vaccines.

The last dog law audit came in 2013, and at the time DePasquale reported that some funds were being used incorrectly, and that canine laws and health regulations weren’t being enforced well enough.

Since then, he said, the bureau has been functioning much better.

But, he added, there’s now a new problem: there’s nowhere near enough money for the bureau to keep functioning as it should.

He said staff have been cut by 18 percent since 2014, and he estimated the bureau could run out of cash this summer.

His office is recommending the General Assembly take a few different actions: increase dog license fees — which brings in much of the bureau’s revenue — to account for inflation, let the bureau keep all the proceeds from its fines and penalties, and increase penalties for kennel violations.

He thanked the Dog Law Enforcement Bureau for cooperating with the audit.

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