WARREN — Healthy Hearts and Paws Project founder Jason Cooke talked at Tuesday’s Trumbull County Commissioners weekly workshop about how the county’s dog pound and his organization each are working at capacity with the quantity of stray dogs being housed at their facilities.

“It is really bad out there,” Cooke said. “I have not seen anything like this. It is terrible having that number of stray dogs running loose. The numbers coming in are going up and up.”

Cooke said his facility is housing approximately 118 dogs at this time, which is more than double its capacity. The county dog pound can hold a maximum of 20 dogs at a time.

He proposed having the county enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Healthy Hearts and Paws Project so when the county’s dog pound is at capacity, its management can legally send overflow to Cooke’s facility for holding and possibly reunite the animals with their owners.

“We are working feverishly to get our second building done,” Cooke said. “That will help.”

However, if no rules are changed, Cooke noted, even when the county opens its proposed expanded dog pound, he likely will be required to come back before the commissioners in two years and report a new level of crisis of abandoned dogs. Cooke suggested the county look at establishing programs that will encourage pet owners to neuter and spay their animals.

“How do we enforce it?” Commissioner Tony Bernard asked.

“I don’t know,” Cooke responded. “Other counties offer incentives when people get their dog license.”

One avenue could involve having a tiered cost for dog licenses.

“Owners that have their animals spayed and neutered will pay one amount, while those that do not pay a higher amount for their licenses,” Cooke said. “I think that’ll work.”

He suggested doing education programs in schools about spaying and neutering dogs.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez suggested that Warren city officials will step up if the county establishes a program to deal with a stray dog and cat program.

“Communities, villages and townships will contribute X amount of dollars per capita to fund the pound,” he said. “The city of Warren has about 40,000 residents. If its residents paid $1 per resident per year, that’d be $40,000 a year.”

“It is something we should start looking at,” he said. “I don’t think it would be an issue. We would have to establish a fund for that.”

Hernandez said the situation is all about the money.

Commissioner Denny Malloy questioned how the county would enforce payment.

“Would we be asking people who do not have dogs to pay $1 per year?” Malloy asked. “We can’t get some dog owners to pay.”

Trumbull County Dog Warden Matthew Dubon said one of the county’s major efforts now is getting people to buy licenses for their pets.

Cooke noted the Healthy Hearts and Paws Project will host a vaccination clinic 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 18 at the facility, 909 Martin Luther King Blvd. in Warren.

Cooke is hoping the representatives of the dog pound will be at the clinic so they can talk to people about getting their dog licenses while at the free event.