 - The Riverton City Council will consider creating a new committee this week to “evaluate animal control and animal shelter needs within the community.”){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The Riverton City Council will consider creating a new committee this week to “evaluate animal control and animal shelter needs within the community.”
The group would be tasked with “assessing current practices, identifying challenges, engaging relevant stakeholders, and exploring potential solutions to improve service delivery, facility utilization, and long-term sustainability of animal control and shelter operations” in Riverton, according to the council meeting agenda for May 5.
Paws for Life
For years, Riverton has worked with the nonprofit Paws for Life Animal League to house at-large dogs and cats at the city-owned shelter facility located at 515 South Smith Road, city staff explained in a memo to the council this week.
But sometimes – and increasingly more often – the shelter doesn’t have enough space to take the animals the Riverton Police Department collects.
The lack of space leaves the city with “a predicament,” Councilmember Karen Johnson during an April 14 meeting, pointing out that the Riverton Municipal Code requires the city to impound animals found running at large in town.
“We have an obligation to fill to the citizens and the community: When they call in a stray animal, (it) needs to be picked up, and we have to have a place to take that,” she said, suggesting that other organizations might be able to provide additional shelter services for the city in order to accommodate more at-large animals.
“We really need to look at what our options are here,” Johnson said. “We do not have alternative options where we can take (stray animals), and I think that that’s causing us to provide a disservice to the citizens of Riverton.”
Another solution, Mayor Tim Hancock said, would be to euthanize the animals that Paws can’t house.
“I know that sucks – (but) we have an obligation that animals don’t run loose in our town,” he said. “So if we’re in a situation (where) there’s no space for those animals … I just don’t know what else to do.”
Hancock reiterated that comment during an April 21 meeting, when the council continued its conversation about capacity issues at the animal shelter.
“We need to be able to wrap our arms around this and figure out what we’re going to do,” he said. “The city has an obligation under our ordinances to ensure that dogs at large are taken, and they have a place to stay. They’re held for five days, (and) after that, city code does allow them to be euthanized. …
“We don’t want that, (but) if we can’t put them somewhere, that’s a problem, because we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”
He proposed establishing a committee to explore the issue further, suggesting that the group include a representative from Paws for Life as well as the RPD, the veterinary industry, the city council, other animal welfare associations, and the general public.
This week’s council agenda indicates that the new “Paws for the Cause” committee would consist of five voting members, including one representative from Paws for Life, one representative from the RPD, one representative from a local veterinary clinic, and two at-large community members.
Up to two city council members, up to two members of the Riverton Youth Council, and the city administrator or his designee will also serve as non-voting committee members, according to the agenda.
For more information, call the City of Riverton at (307) 856-2227.