The first of many meetings was held at the El Paso Animal Services to discuss changes that need to be made to Title Seven.

The pet ordinance was revised two years ago in hopes of curbing animal overpopulation.

The city found that despite the revisions they had already made,  they're still having problems with breeders in the area and ongoing overpopulation.

Senior environmental scientist Karl Rimkus met with local nonprofit organizations and shelters so they could weigh in on the ordinance. 

"Well,  largely what we've seen is what hasn't worked. So what we're trying to address is what hasn't worked, and the two biggest issues are registration of animals of pets and the breeding of animals in the city," said Remkus.

Other organizations agree but also said revisions need to be simplified.

"Well, some of the language in the current ordinance is just so ambiguous that the officers don't know how to enforce it. They don't know what terminology is actually saying. The other thing is there have not been enough personnel in the past for the city to be able to enforce the magnitude of such an ordinance. Also,  there's a huge backyard breeding population in El Paso that does not help with pet overpopulation. With the changes to the ordinance, the main thing that I'm concerned about is equability for all parties concerned: animal welfare organizations, rescue partners and individual pet owners," said Betty Hoover, executive director of the El Paso Humane Society.

Rimkus said the ultimate goal encompasses everyone to be on the same page. To do so, he said, those stricter regulations need to be enforced.

"Well, since this Title Seven was revised last time, the state legislature has passed a law defining what kind of cat- or dog-breeding operation require a state license. We also have the conversation about litter permits and then we have the group in the middle we call 'small time breeders' that operate out of their homes and breed dogs as a business. These are the people we need to create regulations for,  because they don't qualify as breeders under state law," he said.

The city is looking at introducing a first-of-its-kind system to streamline information between the city, pet owner and animal.

"We haven't see any other jurisdiction do something the way we're proposing to do it. Basically,  instead of registering individual animals, a pet owner is a registered pet owner with the city and they have a lifetime registration number that covers all of the animals they own under one number," said Remkus.

Some like the idea but said this system wouldn't help with animals in the county. Per state code, the county could adopt this city ordinance but the city does not have jurisdiction in the unincorporated areas.

"Initially it sounds like a very easy thing to do and a very knowledgeable thing to do. I'm surprised it hasn't been done in the past but we'll see how it goes. I mean,  I want to be the first one. I want to be pet owner 0001. " said Hoover.

It will be a couple of months before the newly revised Title Seven pet ordinance is introduced in the city.

These meeting are open to the public and the city's environmental services will host two more. 

Sept.  13 at 6:30 p.m. at the West Side Regional Command Center

Sept.  20 at 6:30 at the Municipal Service Center

For more information,  call 842-1000.