The Star has a good follow-up article today on the new privatized animal shelter in KCMO - Half Way Home Pet Adoptions.
Back in February, the city council, under the leadership of Councilwoman Cindy Circo, passed through an ordinance that took control of the city's animal shelter away from the city, and into the private hands of Dr. Wayne Steckelberg. The moved saved the city roughly $175,000 a year (contracting out the shelter was cheaper than running it themselves), but has the move had benefits other than financially?
Sure seems like it.
Immediately after taking over the shelter from the city, the folks at Half Way Home began making major improvements to the shelter -- including a major house-cleaning, and then repurposing areas of the shelter for animals. Where before, cats were kept in a crowded hallway with poor ventilation, now, the 75 cats that live in the shelter are free to roam in a large caged area in the basement that comes complete with old furniture for the cats to climb on. Executive offices have been converted into exam rooms for the animals. The area formerly used as a men's locker room is now a haven for the smallest of the puppies and kittens that enter the shelter.
The shelter has also gotten more aggressive about adoptions. While under the management of the city, the shelter was adopting out 75-100 animals a month, and killing roughly 550. Under the new privatized management, the shelter is now adopting out nearly 300 animals per month -- dramatically reducing the number of animals that are killed due to lack of space - mostly through programs the city-run shelter should have been doing in the first place. And the citizens wanted these better results.
In last year's KCMO Citizen Satisfaction Survey, Animal Control had only a 33% approval rating -- ranking it 11th out of 12 performance criteria under "Public Safety Services" (found on page 23). Pets are an important part of life for many Kansas Citians. Over 60% of the city's population owns at least one pet . And with Kansas City being the hub of the Animal Health Corridor, how we treat animals in this city is important, not only for the satisfaction of the citizens, but also for attracting animal health industries for new jobs in the metro.
This won't completely solve animal control's issues, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
Moving forward, I hope the city council can continue to make seemingly small (and cost effective) changes to each area of living in Kansas City -- to continue to improve the areas of the city that citizens are least satisfied with. This is one example of a simple solution that has been a win for everyone in the metro.
And if you're one of the majority of people who are lovers of the pets in the community - take the opportunity to go check out the shelter for yourself. Maybe recommend to a friend or neighbor that is looking for a pet that they check them out and adopt from them. Maybe you can help volunteer a day or two during the week to help out at the shelter, or give them a financial donation. One of the reasons they agreed to run the shelter at a cost below what the city was able to run the shelter for themselves is because they knew that if they ran the shelter the right way and began saving the lives of the pets, they would be able to get ample volunteer and financial donations to make up for the shortfall. Let's prove the right.
This kind of progress is great to see, and I am proud that it is happening in 'my' city. Great post!
Brandon
Posted by: 'Fat Dog' | October 12, 2009 at 11:44 AM
This won't completely solve animal control's issues, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
Posted by: generic viagra | March 08, 2010 at 10:49 AM
Yeah, I hope the city council can continue to make small changes to each area of living in Kansas City.
Keith Sands
Posted by: Telescopic Handler | April 21, 2010 at 08:00 AM
I hope the city council can continue to make small changes to each area of living in Kansas City.
Posted by: Casual Shoes | October 07, 2011 at 08:01 PM