COUNTY CHEWS OVER DOG-LICENSE FEE HIKE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Searching for solutions to pet overpopulation, Los Angeles County supervisors are expected to consider today a proposal to raise dog license fees for unaltered canines.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hear public testimony today to raise fees in unincorporated areas from $10 to $15 for neutered dogs and from $20 to $30 for unneutered dogs.

The increase at county animal shelters, including those in Agoura Hills, Lancaster and Castaic, would be the first one in 10 years.

On Nov. 15, the city of Los Angeles raised the fees for licensing unneutered dogs from $30 to $100. The new city law does not apply to cats and neither would the county plan.

``We had a decade worth of inflation we are trying to catch up on. The proposed fees are not out of line. They are cheaper than the city of Los Angeles,'' said Bob Ballenger, spokesman for the county Department of Animal Care and Control.

Also, the supervisors will hear testimony about eliminating a $2 surcharge for people who bring animals to county shelters. Getting rid of the surcharge is expected to encourage people to bring their animals to the shelters and not abandon them on the streets.

``They leave them on the side of the street and the department picks them up anyway,'' said Jennifer Plaisted, a deputy to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

The department is also proposing to eliminate language that allows the county to sell animals for medical research. The county has not done so in more than a decade, according to Sandy Hill, interim director of the animal control department.

The county supervisors are not expected to take action on that item today.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in Room 381B of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St., in downtown Los Angeles.