Late last summer Butler police responded to a call of a loose dog at the Greenview Garden Apartments.

It's the type of call the department often receives, said Chief Tim Fennell.

This time, however, the dog was a pit bull mix, which meant the police couldn't take it to the Butler County Humane Society because the society doesn't take pit bulls. Also the department does not have a kennel to hold dogs until their owners are found.

So officers placed the agitated dog in the backseat of a patrol car while they looked for its owner.

The dog, like a badly behaved criminal, took exception to its confinement and proceeded to chew the seat, door handles and anything else it could punish for its predicament.

The police found the dog's owner, but not before the dog did $328 in damage to the squad car.

Fennell has asked city council to consider hiring Triangle Pet Control of McKees Rocks to take over the city's dog control.

For $300 per month, Triangle Pet would pick up stray dogs and take them to the company's state certified facility in Allegheny County.

The company will contact owners of licensed dogs, while unlicensed dogs will get 48 hours for their owners to contact the city police. After that, unlicensed animals will either be placed in shelters or with adoptive agencies or be humanely euthanized.

Fennell said using this service will allow city officers to spend less time taking dogs to the county humane society in Connoquenessing Township, which can sometimes take up to an hour round trip with traffic congestion.

"The other problem is that a lot of the time the humane society is full and not accepting dogs, which means we just can't respond to these calls because we don't have anywhere to put them," the chief said.

This problem is made worse by the society's policy not to accept pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

Fennell was referred to Triangle Pet by Steve Mannell, public safety director for Cranberry Township.

"We have used them for years and they are very good," Mannell said, adding the township used to have a dog officer, but when that person was unavailable there was no one to take his place.

Mannell said while he has never seen Triangle's facilities, the township has never received a complaint about the company from township residents who had to pick up their dogs.

"To tell the truth, I could probably build houses for less money than it would take to build a kennel that would meet state regulations," Mannell said.

City council members will take up the matter at their Jan. 24 meeting, but they asked Tuesday that someone research the company's contract to see if the city could charge a fee to those owners who pick up their dogs from Triangle.

Councilman Mike Kelly suggested adding a $10 fee to be added to the Triangle Pet animal pickup fee that would come back to the city to help pay for the company's service.

"Why is the city paying for these people's pets?" asked Kelly. "If you're going to have a dog, you have to be responsible for it and the city shouldn't be paying for their pets."