I'm a little late getting out some information on the latest and greatest in what is going on with the shelter situation in Kansas City, MO. Some really important stuff is going on...
1) The shelter is back open for adoptions -- a few weeks ago, the city relocated all of the animals at the shelter to Hale Arena while they did a thorough cleaning of the entire shelter. The animals were moved back to the shelter, and the shelter is now open for business. The shelter hours are pretty minimal are from 12-6 pm on Monday - Thursday, 12-4 pm Friday and Saturday and closed on Sunday. I know the folks at the shelter are badly in need of volunteers to help with potential adopters, getting petfinder profiles updated and getting dogs walked -- so if you can help, please, please, please donate your time.
2) The Pet Connection -- a good no kill rescue fascility in Mission, has opened up a fairly large section of their space for many of the urgent dogs from the KCMO Shelter. They too badly need help for volunteers to help out with these dogs -- so again, thanks to them for providing the space -- but also, help is needed in that location too. If you are interested in helping here -- please contact me -- and I will get you in contact with the volunteer who is organizing volunteers (or, I know she reads here -- if she wants to post her contact info in the comments, that's fine too).
3) The RFP for the new shelter contract is now available. There are a lot of good questions on the RFP -- including questions about how the new shelter director will manage transfers to other rescue groups, how foster homes will be handled, how adoptions will be handled, how volunteers will be managed, how they will go about promoting spay/neuters, getting dogs returned to owners, deal with aggressive animals, owner surrenders, etc. There are also some good questions on helping deal with cases of minor neglect thatI think are interesting because our animal control has typically dealt with these cases through confiscation and may now be looking for solutions that involve keeping the animal in its home, but helping the owners to better care for the animals.
I'm very hopeful that the city will really take to heart these answers and not make this a solution about the lowest cost providers. The answers to these questions will make the difference for literally thousands of animal lives in our community in the coming years -- and they're too important to just have on the RFP as window-dressing.
The RFP process is going to move fairly quickly in the short run:
6/8 -Shelter walk-through for interested parties
6/16 - deadline for question submissions
7/7 -- Due date for proposals
7/20 -- Notification of Short-listed providers
7/25 - Interviews (if necessary)
7/27 - Selection made
August is set aside for negotiations, contract signing and ordinance proposal/acceptance of recommended provider, with the new organizations slated to take over in September.
4) Separate from the RFP - the city also appears to be giving serious consideration to building a new animal shelter. City Councilman John Sharp, along with former council member Teresa Lohr are leading the charge to put a measure on the ballot for a tax increase to raise $10 million build a new shelter. The city's current shelter was built in 1973 -- and was basically created as a catch and kill facility. The shelter is very small for a city this size, has horrible ventilation and no isolation area that make animals very succeptible to diseases, is in a remote location that is very difficult for potential adopters or people with lost pets to get to. Potential adopters also get the pleasure of having the crematorium attached to the shelter that is often running when people are at the shelter.
City Manager Troy Schulte acknowledges that the shelter was never designe for modern day animal care needs. And Schulte notes that for every 1 person sho says we shouldn't spend the money he would expect 1,000 emails saying that the city isn't being nearly compassionate enough about the care of animals.
It sounds like there is a very real possibility for the tax to appear on the ballot in November -- or possibly spring of 2012. There is also a chance that it would be grouped with other tax needs -- such as a tax needed to repair our crumbling sewer system. It is still disappointing that the new shelter was removed from last year's public safety tax proposal even though it was considered in the early stages.
There seems to be quite a bit of support for the new shelter -- with most rational people recognizing the need for a new facility. The combination of a new facility, and competent management, could set Kansas City up for success as a no kill community.
5) Separate from the KCMO shelter news, Jackson County, MO has signed off on $5 million to build a new animal shelter serving the non-Kansas City areas of the county. The shelter will be built on 23rd street -- 2 miles East of 291 Highway near Metropolitan Community College - Blue River in Independence. The shelter will replace the 30 year old shelter that is currently being used and will have enough space to house 125 cats and more than 100 dogs. County Legislator Denny Waits has been leading this effort in Jackson County for several years and it will be great to see it come to fruition.
We need a lot of short term help out there folks...but things are certainly looking up if we can make good decisions along the way.
The KCMO shelter is actually closed on Sundays, but it is open to volunteers so the dogs can be walked. It is also open on Wednesdays now. The page linked for shelter hours is the old Halfway Home page, which is no longer updated.
The current hours are:
Mon - Thurs: 12:00 pm-6:00 pm
Fri - Sat: 12:00 pm-4:00 pm
If you can come out and help, please do! New volunteers are usually trained on Sundays.
Posted by: Arkiya | June 08, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Thanks Arkiya -- I'll update the original post to be sure to get the accurate information out there. It was impossible to find anything else online (also a problem).
Posted by: Brent | June 08, 2011 at 12:43 PM
I agree! It is really hard to find the information. Many people showed up when I was walking on Sunday to adopt or look for lost dogs, not realizing the shelter was closed.
The only place I know for sure where it is listed and kept current is the KC Animal Shelter Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kansas-City-Animal-Shelter/220412271302527?sk=info).
Posted by: Arkiya | June 08, 2011 at 12:52 PM
All the more reason why the shelter SHOULD be open on Sunday (which I know it would be if it were up to the volunteers).
Posted by: Brent | June 08, 2011 at 12:53 PM
To help at The Pet Connection, please contact me at [email protected]! Basic care is pretty much covered, but we are in need of people to take the dogs on fun outings, like car rides, trips for ice cream, to the park, or for a play session in your backyard. Please contact me if you can help! - Kelly Lange
Posted by: kdl | June 09, 2011 at 12:48 AM
Dropping a note ...
Michigan House Representative Timothy Bledsoe introduced HB 4714 on June 7th, which would enact a state-wide ban on "pit bulls" and any dog that looks like one. Full information on the ban at http://stopbsl.com/2011/06/07/michigan-hb/ -- including who and how to contact those involved.
Apparently my state legislators would like to focus on the non-issue of "pit bulls", instead of the fact that three of our largest cities are on the FBI's Top 25 list of Most Violent Cities for 2010, or the fact that we're the only state still in a recession, or the fact that we've had to cut the number of officers (state and local) and the amount of money going to them because our state constitution demands a balanced budget (to the point that for the past several years [since 2005, at least] we've either had a threatened state government shut down or an ACTUAL state government shut down [in 2007 and 2009, IIRC]).
Posted by: 2dogcrazy | June 09, 2011 at 01:04 AM
A special tax to build a new shelter and fund repair of crumbling sewers in Kansas City, MO?
Are you kidding me? KCMO already has a one percent earnings tax. Infrastructure and animal shelters should fall under "basic service".
KCMO residents recently voted to renew the earnings tax and, unfortunately, it passed by about 72%. I would have liked to have seen it pass by 50.1% to put the Council on notice that they need to manage money more carefully.
Posted by: kmk | June 11, 2011 at 10:39 AM
There are a lot of older cities that are dealing with the sewer issues we're facing now where the old original sewer systems just need to be redone. It's an incredibly expensive project -- and there is a lot of pressure to do them with green standards.
The shelter is frustrating because we just renewed two separate 'public safety' taxes in the past year with the Combat Tax and the Public Safety tax. The shelter could easily have been added to either of these taxes.
Even with these taxes, and the eTax, the the tax rate in KCMO is actually lower than the taxes in several other areas of the metro.
Posted by: Brent | June 11, 2011 at 10:47 AM