• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Shelter rewriting municipal contracts

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Tootsie, a 4 to 5-year-old beagle found in Edgerton, awaits adoption at the Rock County Humane Society.

JANESVILLE — Rock County municipalities might spend more for humane society services in 2009, but the society expects to better serve residents and stray animals.

The Rock County Humane Society has sent contracts to all 27 of the county’s towns, villages and cities, said Jim Hurley, interim shelter director. The contracts are due by Feb. 6, and so far the shelter has gotten back seven contracts, including the city of Janesville and city of Beloit, he said.

The changes were inspired by an audit of the shelter’s policies earlier this year, Hurley said. One problem that auditors saw was the shelter’s clumsy method of handling calls to pick up strays.

In the past, if a resident called to report a stray, the shelter sought permission from a local official to pick up the animal, Hurley said. That sometimes meant dozens of calls to everyone from the village treasurer to the town constable, he said.

Police—or sheriff’s deputies in the cases of towns and villages without their own police department—sometimes would respond to the animal welfare calls first and then wait for a humane society worker to arrive, he said.

The new contract would allow the shelter to respond to the call without bothering local officials or unnecessarily tying up police, Hurley said.

“The benefit to municipalities is … we’re not bothering them,” Hurley said. “We’re not making 15 to 20 calls. People that live in their area, they know they can just call us and we’re going to come out. No headache. No waiting. As soon as we can get a driver to ya, we’ll pick it up.”

The way municipalities are charged for animal calls also would change, Hurley said.

Currently, if the shelter is called to pick up an animal, it charges $55 for a dog, $35 for a cat and $20 for a feral cat, sick or injured animal or small domestic animal.

The shelter charges an additional $25 daytime fee or $40 nighttime fee for pickups outside the cities of Janesville, Beloit and Edgerton, Hurley said.

The shelter uses the fee money to care for the animal for seven days. If an owner picks up the animal sooner, the owner pays a fee of $10 per day for the animal’s care, and the municipality is not charged.

Under the new contract, municipalities except for Janesville and Beloit would be charged $15, even if the owner comes to pick up an animal within the seven-day holding period, Hurley said. Janesville and Beloit do not have the handling fee because they pay for an employee at the shelter, he said.

The changes would generate additional revenue to cover costs, Hurley said.

“We’re trying to stay in the black and not go into the red. It was something we needed to do,” he said.

Crowding at the shelter could increase, however, under the new contracts.

“It will put a bigger burden on us (because we’re) no longer waiting for a call from a constable to OK, we’re just going to get the animals,” Hurley said. “Unfortunately, I think it would mean seeing more animals than less.”

But Hurley said shelter officials are trying to serve the county the best it can, so picking up those animals will prevent bigger problems.

Hurley and former shelter Director Chris Konetski spent hundreds of hours reviewing other shelters’ municipal contracts, Hurley said.

If a municipality does not sign a contract by the deadline, the shelter will not respond to calls in that community and will not accept drop-offs, Hurley said.

“We hope that 90 days will give everyone time to make other arrangements for your stray animal concerns, should they choose not to renew the contract,” Hurley said.