The number of municipalities taking stray dogs to the Humane League of Lancaster County is dwindling — again.

But it's not because there are fewer strays.

The cost of doing business with the Humane League is up again this year, and some municipalities are looking at options for 2012.

Short of building and staffing their own kennels, there aren't many.

Even so, it pains League president Joan Brown to see municipalities pulling their support from the county's primary animal shelter.

"We will still have some contracts next year," Brown said Monday. "Is it a shrinking number? Yes."

Just over half of Lancaster County's 60 municipalities have a contract with the League for 2011. Contracts for next year are due in mid-September, Brown said, and she expects that number to fall, although she declined Monday to guess just how low it might go.

"Honestly, at this point I don't know," she said. "I've gotten some contracts back signed already. And I've had some municipalities indicate they would look at alternatives."

The grim reality, Brown said, is that there is an unceasing supply of stray dogs and feral cats, and they've got to go somewhere.

And caring for them — whether that means feeding and sheltering them, treating them for illnesses or providing humane euthanasia — costs money.

"Municipalities are crunched for funds, just as we are," Brown said. "But, as much as we would like to provide those services, we simply can't do it if it's not paid for."

A contract with the Humane League for 2012 costs municipalities a flat 85 cents per capita, Brown said. That's up from 60 cents in 2010.

Still, some municipalities don't believe the price tag is justified.

"We don't have a big (stray dog) problem," Mountville Borough councilman Francis Zimmer said earlier this month. "We only deal with a few strays a year."

Zimmer and other members of council balked at the $2,500 they would have to pay for Humane League services in 2012.

West Hempfield Township police Chief Mark Pugliese said West Hempfield would pay around $14,000 under the new rate. The township is looking at options, he said, because it sends the League about 25 dogs per year.

Brown said the League this year has adopted a strict per-capita policy for municipal contracts, a move that has been in the works for the past few years.

The League previously charged by the dog, but Brown said that was "a huge administrative nightmare" as municipalities squabbled over where dogs were found and who was responsible for individual bills.

The League took in 1,151 stray dogs in 2010, she said. Comparatively, the League took in 2,326 stray cats — for which the shelter receives no municipal support.

"For years now, we've been going to the county and the state, trying to find a solution for this stray problem," Brown said. "We're not alone as a shelter."

Municipalities are required by state law to provide some means of care for stray dogs.

Without a contract, Brown said, the League must turn away strays that are brought in from those municipalities.

"We have a list at the front desk of those municipalities that do not contract with us," she said. "If a citizen brings an animal in (from a municipality on that list), we have to refer them back to that municipality's police department. We cannot take that animal."

The question is: What will the municipality do with the dog?

"That's the rub," Brown said.

Some municipalities call on state dog wardens to handle strays, she said, but the resources of state dog wardens "are strained as well."

Coverage by state wardens is "sporadic and incomplete," she said. "And that leaves the community with a problem."

Building and staffing a kennel to handle occasional strays would be cost-prohibitive for most municipalities, Brown said.

If a dog's owner is surrendering the pet, for whatever reason, the Humane League "absolutely will take it" no matter what municipality the person resides in, Brown said. Municipal contracts apply only to strays.

The Humane League also provides low-cost clinics to spay and neuter feral cats whether or not they come from municipalities with a contract, she said.

tknapp@lnpnews.com