PUBLIC VIEWPOINT Bentonville Needs Animal Shelter

Bentonville is really a town to be proud of, especially with the addition of Crystal Bridges, the bike trails, all the beautiful parks, and a wide array of businesses. But there is one thing Bentonville lacks that a city our size needs: an animal shelter.

Bentonville pays Rogers to take in the dogs animal control picks up, sometimes eventually euthanizing them for lack of space.

Bentonville does absolutely nothing whenit comes to picking up and caring for cats that are multiplying like mad all over our city.

The other shelters in the area are beyond capacity.

Bella Vista has a great shelter with a low euthanasia rate because they have involved the community to donate and volunteer.

The tiny town of Lowell has an animal shelter.

Rogers has two shelters.

Centerton even has the Centerton Animal Shelter and Lone Pine Shelter.

Springdale has a shelter.

Fayetteville just opened the Washington County shelter and has the Fayetteville Animal Shelter.

Forgive me if I’ve missed someone.

What does Bentonville have? Nothing.

There are literally thousands of wonderful pets being euthanized every year in Northwest Arkansas shelters mainly because of lack of space.

Let’s get this ball rolling and start planning a modern, top-class shelter our towncan also be proud of, with a healthy place to temporarily house animals until they can find their forever homes.

While we are doing this, we can spread the word of the importance of spaying and neutering our pets, and build a volunteer and foster base that will be important to the success of the new shelter.

If any town can do this, Bentonville can.

LINDA PICKEN

Bentonville

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/22/2012

Upcoming Events