SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Lynda White said they have always had pets in her family.
But after their other pets died, she and her husband weren’t planning on getting any more.
“But it was just too quiet in our house without having a little one to take care of, so we started looking,” White said.
That’s when they found Tinky, their long haired Chihuahua.
“She sleeps with us, and she snuggles with us, and she just kind of does her own thing," White said. "She’s very loving."
White and her husband, a veteran, adopted Tinky six months ago.
“I saw this little gal and as soon as I saw her picture, I told my husband, ‘This is the one we need. She needs help,’ so we went out and got her,” White said.
They paid a $200 adoption fee.
“That took care of spaying, neutering, all of her shots and all that stuff,” White said.
A push in the Capitol would require animal shelters and animal control facilities to waive adoption fees for veterans.
The bill passed unanimously out of the House and is waiting further action in the Senate.
“This gives our vets who have sacrificed so much, just an opportunity to have that extra support, that extra comfort, that camaraderie, that friendship that we have with our animals, with our pets that become part of the family,” State Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel (D-Shorewood), the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said.
White said getting rid of that fee would’ve been helpful for her family.
“But I know it will be helpful for a lot of veterans who may or may not have a family to be with them to give them a purpose and something to take care of,” White said. “So many of our veterans are very lonely. They don’t have very many people left that they can count on.”
Some shelters like the Animal Protective League (APL) in Springfield work with veterans on a case-by-case basis and have, in some instances, waived or discounted the fees.
“Our adoption fees fund a little bit of our operations but this is a percentage of a percentage of a percentage,” Ian Wick, the APL’s adoption center manager, said. “So the veterans that would come in, I’d be happy to waive any adoption fees for them right now, before the legislation even takes place.”
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via WCIA.com https://www.wcia.com
April 28, 2023 at 07:16PM
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