Published: November 11, 2006 10:45 pm         

Terre Haute animal control enforcement not picking up strays

Humane society still busy

TERRE HAUTE — Lafayette residents Robert Clugh and Brian Hibbert didn’t expect to see three dogs “cruising down the middle” of Wabash Avenue while visiting Terre Haute last weekend.

They also were surprised when, after stopping one of the dogs, city authorities told them to let the stray animal go.

Instead, the two men took the dog to the Terre Haute Humane Society, where a volunteer admitted the stray into the shelter.

The city recently stopped taking stray animals to the Humane Society after running out of allocated animal control funding for 2006. Terre Haute only had $300 left for the year after paying its September bill to the shelter, according to the Board of Public Works and Safety. The city and Humane Society have continued to work together, even though local officials are concerned about the costs of animal control.

The city is now taking only vicious, neglected or abused animals to the shelter. Many stray animals wandering loose — even in the middle of Wabash Avenue — are abandoned.

Clugh and Hibbert didn’t release the dog they found because they “didn’t want it to get hit by a car,” Clugh said last Sunday while checking up on the dog at the Humane Society.

Costly venture

Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke said that the city could pay up to $100,000 by year’s end for the shelter to take stray animals. He wants to look at alternatives, so the city will be requesting proposals from private entities interested in assuming the task next year.

He would not say what he felt was an acceptable amount of money to take care of the issue.

“Our objective is, if we’re going to spend this kind of money on animal control, I want to make sure that it’s spent the most efficient and wisest way possible,” Burke said. “The only way you know that type of stuff … is by asking questions.”

The city paid the Humane Society about $67,000 in 2004 and again in 2005, according to the Board of Public Works and Safety.

Terre Haute took 1,093 animals to the Humane Society in 2004, and 881 animals in 2005.

Authorities had taken 804 animals to the shelter between January and October of this year; only 12 of those were taken there last month.

“They’re just bringing us the same [number] every year and they’re not fixing the problem,” said Susan Marr, president of the board for the Humane Society. “We’re not the fix. We’re just here to help.”

City attorney Kendall Boyd said that code enforcers bringing in stray animals have sometimes been turned away from the shelter when it was full.

“We just can’t understand how it is that all this money is paid for the service, and animals aren’t being processed fast enough,” Boyd said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

The contract between the two entities states that the Humane Society may refuse to accept delivery of animals from the city “if, in its sole discretion, its facility is full.”

“If I had not limited them back then, they would have run out of money much sooner,” shelter manager Patricia Farnsworth said, “but I have never told them for a week we were closed or anything like that. I might’ve told them that we were full” once in a while.

Animals whose owners cannot be found are held by the city for five days before they become city property, according to municipal code. The law states the animals can then be put up for adoption or “humanely” euthanized, or killed.

But the contract between the shelter and city states that after five days, the Humane Society determines an animal’s fate. Several volunteers at the private, not-for-profit shelter work to send dogs and cats to various animal rescues around the country, where they are more likely to get adopted. Sometimes animals are at the shelter a few weeks before they are sent out.

Of 2,520 animals processed by the Humane Society from January through October, only 219 were returned to their owners. Another 646 animals were adopted by people, while 1,063 were sent to various animal rescues that volunteers research.

Some 579 animals, less than one-fourth of all animals taken to the shelter, were euthanized.

If a different private entity gets involved, “I think our biggest concern is that … there won’t be a lot of focus on adopting a lot of animals out or placing them in rescues,” Farnsworth said, “but it’ll just be a situation where a lot of animals are euthanized.”

The city has allotted $85,000 for animal control costs for next year, even though that amount was not enough for 2006. The city is now paying the Humane Society from a different part of the Board of Public Works and Safety’s budget.

Farnsworth said that the most effective way to limit the number of stray animals is to spay or neuter more animals so they cannot breed.

“It’s a pretty frustrating situation that has been allowed to exist for years and years and years,” she said, “and I think it’s time to break the cycle.”

A code enforcement official referred all phone calls about animal control to Boyd. Boyd then notified a Tribune-Star reporter to contact code enforcement again. A phone message left Thursday by the Tribune-Star requesting comment was not returned.

What about

next year?

Burke indicated that the city has not notified the Humane Society that officials are not interested in a 2007 contract.

“At no point in time have I said that there is not going to be a contract with them,” Burke said during an interview Thursday.

But in a letter dated Oct. 26 and addressed to Marr, Boyd wrote that the city “does not wish to renew the contract for 2007.”

“At this point, the City has no intentions of negotiating a new contract for this service, and the City will inform you if it wishes to pursue negotiations for a new contract for the future care, holding and disposal of animals here in the City,” Boyd wrote in the letter.

Despite recent events, the Humane Society is still at or near capacity with animals. Vigo County authorities outside Terre Haute, strangers and pet owners have left more animals at the shelter in October than in September.

Most of the time the shelter needs people to set up appointments to drop off animals, since the Humane Society frequently runs near or at capacity with animals. But there have been times when people have “dumped” animals at the shelter and driven away, leaving the shelter to make room.

“If they really care about that animal, they’ll work with you and understand what you're trying to do,” Farnsworth said.

But she is concerned about strays wandering the streets of Terre Haute.

“If [city officials] run out of money, it doesn’t mean the animals have stopped running on the street and the animals don’t need care,” Farnsworth said. “We have a serious problem in this community, and it’s not being addressed in a serious manner.”

Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.



Fast Facts

Location: 1811 S. Fruitridge Ave. (shelter)

Phone: (812) 232-0293

Hours: Noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Web site: www.thhs.org. Shop there for a pet

Purpose: Not-for-profit organization that provides stray or abandoned animals with a safe, temporary home until a loving family can be found