 - The Paws for Life Animal Shelter gave its annual report to the Riverton City Council this month and responded to statements from a community member who had previously voiced concerns about the operation.){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The Paws for Life Animal Shelter gave its annual report to the Riverton City Council this month and responded to statements from a community member who had previously voiced concerns about the operation.
As of Dec. 10, Paws Board Chair Pam Canham said the shelter has received 268 dogs and 195 cats this year, and of those, 40 dogs and 16 cats remain at the facility.
For dogs and puppies, Canham said “we go through approximately 1,100 pounds of … food within a month, (and) when we are at capacity we use approximately 2,200 pounds a month.”
For cats and kittens, she said “we go through approximately 600 pounds of … food every month, (and) when our capacity is extended we go through about 1,000 pounds of food.”
“Next to veterinary bills, food cost is pretty much the top (expense),” Canham said. “It takes a lot to keep these babies healthy.”
It also “takes a lot to keep the shelter going,” Canham said, and Paws is always looking for “volunteers for just about everything under the sun, from walking dogs to helping with grants to helping with fundraising events, social media, helping with the website – just the whole gamut.”
“We also are always looking for foster families for our animals,” she said, thanking “all of the volunteers in the community that stepped up” to help foster local animals during the Paws “capacity crisis” this fall.
Paws “could not have gotten through” that situation “without a lot of our dogs going into foster homes (and to) other shelters and rescues,“ Canham said, mentioning facilities in Jackson Hole and other parts of the state, as well as organizations in Utah and Colorado.
“We are very blessed in that we have a lot of … relationships with shelters and rescues, (and) they have been phenomenal,” she said. “We try to work with as many organizations as possible (to) find avenues for our critters to get good, loving forever homes.”
When it comes to the shelter facility itself, Canham said the building that Paws has inhabited for 20 years is “starting to wear out,” and “we have really been trying very hard to keep up with the maintenance issues that we’re facing.”
At this point, she said, “we fortunately have all the money to pay our share of the roof (and) our share of our new water heater,” but because the City of Riverton owns the shelter building and contributes 50 percent to improvements at the property, Paws must receive municipal approval before undertaking any major maintenance projects.
They received that approval for the roof and water heater projects last month, Canham said, and this month “our new water heater was installed” and “work began on repairing our leaking roof.”
Now, Canham said, “we are in the process of working with the city to come up with some possible ideas to improve the drainage,” and “we are also looking for approval to replace our smoke alarm system.”
Animal shelters aren’t required to have fire alarms, Canham noted, but “we do want to make sure that … if, God forbid, a fire should break out, (we) know” and can “get down there and get” the animals out of the building.
Paws has already installed carbon monoxide detectors at the shelter, she added, and they recently replaced all of the facility’s fire extinguishers as well.
There is also a plan in place to upgrade the shelter’s phone system, which currently only allows for one line to be in use at a time, Canham said.
“That’s why … people have a difficult time getting a hold of (us),” she said, encouraging people to use Facebook Messenger to contact the shelter instead until the phone system is improved.
Community concern
After Canham finished her presentation, Mayor Tim Hancock asked about some of the other concerns community member Janet Henshaw had shared that evening, and at a previous council meeting Dec. 3.
One of the issues Henshaw brought up had to do with feeding cat food to dogs – something that happened on one occasion this year when an order of dog food was late to arrive, Shelter Manager Whitney Fontes said.
“(For) that one singular feeding, we supplemented in some cat food to top it off … just to get them through one feeding until our shipment arrived,” Fontes told the council Dec. 17, adding, “From a nutritional standpoint, dogs can have cat food fairly regularly.”
Local veterinarian Amy Stockton, who also attended the Dec. 17 council meeting, confirmed that cat food is not harmful for dogs and added that the staff at Paws are “very careful about” giving their animals “a consistent diet.”
Even for that “one little feeding” that incorporated cat food, Stockton said staff “were a little nervous about” the situation, “so they mixed (the cat food) in” with the rest of the available dog food so the animals “wouldn’t have upset tummies.”
Stockton does a monthly walk-through at the shelter, free of charge, “to make sure that all of our dogs and cats are in prime condition,” Canham said, and “after her walk-through last month we got an ‘A’.”
“We have trained our staff in proper protocols including training for vaccination schedules, antiviral cleaning methods, medical quarantine protocols, deworming schedules, (and) proper protocols for animal arrangements according to current medical standards to prevent contamination with regard to vaccination status,” Canham said.
Henshaw had also asked about the shelter’s financial records, so during the Dec. 17 meeting Paws Treasurer Ashley Aragon said she could supply any financial information requested, and she invited community members to reach out to her if they have any other questions.
“You just have to ask,” she said.
Councilmember Karla Borders, who has served as the city’s liaison to the Paws board for three years, commended the organization for the work they put into operating the shelter.
“They love these animals, (and) they take excellent care of them,” Borders said. “I just want to thank you for everything that you do.”
Riverton Police Department Chief Eric Hurtado agreed that the organizers at Paws “do a wonderful job (with) the staff they have.”
“Other than cosmetics and trying to get more volunteers, we don’t have any big issues,” he said.
Other community members spoke on Paws’ behalf during the council meeting, too, including Zach Vogel, who said he volunteers at the shelter regularly and has not witnessed any concerning activity.
“Everything I’ve seen with these guys … is 100 percent clean (and) transparent,” he said, encouraging more community members to volunteer at Paws. “These guys are doing their absolute best with the funds they have, the building they have, and the people they have. They’re doing an amazing job taking care of these animals that come to them.”
Local resident Kurt Galitz echoed those comments, calling Paws “an amazing organization that I think we should be proud of,” and incoming city council member Karen Johnson said she hasn’t “personally seen anything … concerning” at Paws either, but she did ask for more information about infectious diseases among shelter puppies, and she suggested that the city could request additional details about the organization’s expenses.
The City of Riverton provided Paws with $45,000 this year, and the nonprofit organization was able to generate an additional $131,500 in 2024 through fundraising, shelter fees, licenses, reclaimed animals, rabies deposits, and other items, Canham said.
For more information, call the City of Riverton at (307) 856-2227.