AUGUSTA – Members of the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee got their first look Thursday afternoon at proposals and recommendations for revamping the Animal Welfare Division of the Maine Department of Agriculture.

Keys to the success of the recommendations are additional funding and public education.

After holding several sessions last summer, during which local animal control officers, horse industry representatives and others from a variety of animal groups demanded changes in the division, the agriculture panel established a new advisory committee to take a look at the department’s efficiency and response, and to come back with recommendations and funding options.

In that same period of time, said officials, agents have investigated more than 250 reports of animal abuse.

The Animal Welfare Advisory Council presented two options Thursday, both requiring substantial additional funding and both beefing up the enforcement and education end of animal welfare.

Peter Mosher, program manager of the Animal Welfare Division, told the committee members that AWAC’s 12 members have held six meetings since mid-October. At these meetings, AWAC identified a number of issues that need to be addressed. These include:

. Public awareness.

. The lack of municipalities reporting closed animal welfare cases.

. Clarification of summons and enforcement issues.

. Improving working relationships with local animal control officers and town clerks.

. Refining and improving the handling of cases, from documentation and investigation, to closing the cases.

Immediate action is required, said Mosher, on educating the public, animal control officers, humane agents and town clerks, and increasing training for the public officials.

A report presented Thursday assessed that the general public – the very people seeking services from the animal welfare agents – has not made the connection between those services and funding obtained through dog licenses.

Mosher said he has discovered that some towns are not even licensing dogs and estimates that more than 50 percent of all dogs in Maine are unlicensed.

AWAC committee member Anne Jordan said she polled a recent gathering of 10 professional people. “Three had licensed their dogs,” she said.

The Animal Welfare Program is nearly entirely supported through dog licenses, said Mosher. In 2001, $266,186 in dog license revenues was received. That is more than $100,000 less than seven years ago, said Mosher.

A new regulation that requires fees for those selling pet and livestock feeds that went into effect last fall has generated another $100,000, he said.

The two options for revamping the division for 2003 differed by nearly $300,000. The first option would hire six new humane agents, with one of them being a veterinarian. Each humane agent is paid $53,780 annually, while the agent-veterinarian would be paid $74,104. Intermittent agents would no longer be used. That option, however, would increase the division’s $529,413 budget by more than $450,000.

A second option, recommended by AWAC, would hire three new agents, with one being a veterinarian, but continue to use intermittent agents on a limited basis. That budget would come in at nearly $700,000.

Mosher said the key to funding the division would be increasing the numbers of dogs licensed, as well as implementing a 10 percent surcharge on all fines levied by the state’s courts for animal cruelty cases. Other topics that AWAC has discussed, but not yet recommended or rejected, include licensing cats, having horses and other companion animals contribute to the program, installing an additional sales tax on animal feeds.

Increased training was backed by both AWAC and the agriculture committee.

“There is a big gap between what ACOs get and what they need,” said Mosher. “We need to work together. If an ACO traps abandoned cats, then the humane agent needs to help go after whoever abandoned the cats.”

Mosher said a solid strategy would be required to increase dog licensing. The committee requested statistics on which communities have a solid history of licensing participation and suggested there could be incentives for towns that boost their licensing rates.

AWAC will continue to meet, and legislation backing their final recommendations is expected to come from the Agriculture Committee before this session closes.