AWLA Hawk

In our last episode of Fun with Numbers, we pointed out that AWLA categorizes revenue from Kids Camp under “League Revenue and Support” while the primary expenses necessary to stage Kids Camp (i.e. the cost of sheltering the animals that enable Kids Camp) are assigned to the County Contract.

Just for context, here are numbers from the FY2009 Financial Results published in AWLA’s Pawpourri newsletter:

Arlington County Contract for Sheltering/Animal Control

Revenue: $1,229,326
County expenses: $1,403,748
Surplus (deficit): ($174,422)

So AWLA receives $1.23 million from the County to perform animal control and manage the shelter, but spends $1.4 million handling those responsibilities.

But Kids Camp isn’t the only program that uses County Contract funds to generate income that AWLA categorizes as “League Revenue and Support.”

What about adoptions? When dogs, cats, or small companion animals get adopted, the adopters pay AWLA a fee. For dogs, the normal fee is $120. For cats $100. Parrots $150. Ferrets $80. Canaries $60. Rabbits $50. Etc.

And how about lost-and-found pets, aka stray pets that are “Returned to Owner”? AWLA charges $25 per calendar day as a boarding fee for these returned pets.

Since adopted pets come from the animal shelter and RTOs are picked up by animal control, and the County Contract pays for both of these services, you might think the revenue from adoptions and returned pets would also be associated with the County Contract. Nope – it’s listed as “program revenues”.

How much revenue are we talking about? Assuming that four out of five RTOs are charged for one day at the shelter (and the fifth is charged for two days), that one out of five adopted dogs and cats gets the senior-discount rate, and that the average small companion is a canary, here’s how it looks:

Adding $122K to the County Contract revenue kind of chops that “deficit” down to size, doesn’t it?