Is a county animal shelter needed?
On behalf of your local Animal Shelter directors, I can say we do not think so.
If there is a problem with animals-at-large in our community and a lack of funding for cities like Bellevue to employ an animal control officer, the solution is not to open a county pound whereby unclaimed animals would be euthanized and hence taken off the street.
The Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley has served the county for many years as its impound facility, as well as operating as a private non-profit no-kill animal shelter. We take ownership of the unclaimed animals after seven days.
It is very important for the community to know that we want to continue providing this service to the county and for that reason are in contract negotiations with the Blaine County commissioners to write a new contract. The current contract, due for renewal in March, needs to be updated to better meet both the needs of the shelter, the animals and the citizens of Blaine County.
At present, the shelter has individual contracts with each city, in addition to the county as a whole. Because cities like Bellevue and Carey have limited budget resources, they cannot afford to pay the shelter for services. For this reason, we have asked the county commissioners to draft a contract whereby we have but one contract with the county.
Blaine County has only one animal control officer, but, in the absence of animal control, the good citizens of our valley bring lost and abandoned animals to the shelter. In essence, the shelter serves in the absence of animal control and does so 365 days a year. We are not overwhelmed. In fact, we believe 2006 may have been one of our most successful and rewarding years in our 26 years of business. The community would probably be interested to know for the last three years running, the number of animals received at the shelter has basically remained the same. We believe the fact that we have ramped-up our spay/neuter clinics and expanded our services and support to the community has contributed to these facts. The average number of animals on-site at the shelter each month last year was less than in prior years and under our capacity.
Killing an animal-at-large does not fix the problem; the pet's owner is the problem. People need to be educated on the value of spay/neuter, licensing dogs and responsible pet ownership. And this is our mission!
Christine Ferguson
Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley, Governance Officer
