Shelter Sees Fewer Bentonville Dogs

BENTONVILLE — The number of dogs city Animal Control has taken to the Rogers Animal Shelter has decreased by 30 percent during the last three years, according to city numbers.

There were 35 1 dogs moved to the shelter last year, which was 15 percent less than 2012 when 415 dogs were taken to Rogers, according to Bentonville numbers. That was 17 percent less than the 500 dogs that were transferred in 2011.

AT A GLANCE

SHELTER STATS

The number of dogs taken from Bentonville to the Rogers Animal Shelter has decreased by 30 percent over the last three years. Here is a break down of the numbers: Dogs taken to the shelter: 500 in 2011, 415 in 2012 and 351 in 2013. Dogs returned to owners: 210 in 2011, 182 in 2012 and 162 in 2013. Dead animals taken to the shelter: 27 in 2011, 26 in 2012 and 12 in 2013. Totals numbers combined: 737 in 2011, 623 in 2012 and 525 in 2013.

SOURCE: CITY OF BENTONVILLE

Those numbers don’t include dogs taken and returned to their owners or dead animals that were taken to the shelter.

The 351 dogs last year averages to less than a dog a day, said Bob McCaslin, Bentonville mayor.

The capacity at the shelter varies with the size and types of animals currently there, said Bud Norman, shelter manager. There are 65 large dog kennels and about a dozen puppy kennels. The shelter can hold about 45 cats, which again, is contingent on certain variables such as if there are any that need to be isolated from other animals, Norman said.

Offcials aren’t certain what caused the drop in numbers, but there could be several factors, said Jon Simpson, Bentonville police chief.

More dogs are being microchipped, which makes returning them to their owners easier; animal control investigations have been eft ective and it could just be “luck of the draw,” Simpson said.

“Our goal is not to put the animals in the shelter, but return them to homes,” he said.

Bentonville Animal Control is part of the Police Department and has two off - cers.

They’ve been taking loose dogs to the Rogers shelter since 2007. Bentonville doesn’t have a shelter of its own.

Veronica and William Lopez moved to Bentonville from south Texas about five months ago and were directed by Bentonville off - cials to the Rogers shelter when they started to look for a dog to adopt.

“I thought it was a bit weird,” Veronica said as Daisy, her 13-week old blue heeler mix, romped in the mud at the Bentonville Dog Park on Friday.

Veronica visited the Rogers shelter in search of a specifi c puppy, but doing further research she and her husband ended up adopting Daisy from the Eureka Springs Good Shepherd Humane Society.

Blue Heelers are protective and playful, a good match for their two children, she said.

“It was nice. It was clean,” she said of the Rogers shelter. “This is a big area, but Rogers isn’t far away.”

The Bentonville City Council approved the contract renewal between the two cities in January. In the contract Bentonville agrees to pay Rogers a flat rate of $5,500 a month in addition to $85 per animal that is turned over the shelter.

Discussion between Bentonville and Rogers goes back to 2005 and 2006 when Rogers was in the process of designing a new animal shelter, McCaslin said. Bentonville had a shelter, but it was “embarrassingly old,” in “poor shape” and “rudimentary.”

“Bentonville was acutely aware that it needed to go to a different level,” McCaslin said.

McCaslin began his mayorship in 2007, which was the first year the agreement between the two cities was implemented.

The $5,500 monthly flat rate, which comes to $66,000 per year, is to help pay for staff. It has increased three times since the original contract. The fee totaled $55,000 in 2009, $60,000 in 2011 before its current rate of $66,000 for 2014, according to Greg Hines, Rogers mayor.

The shelter has eight employees, said Carey Anderson, Hines’ assistant.

The salary and benefit packages of the two highest paid kennel techs equals $68,988, Hines said.

“Even though I’m still supporting something a previous administration did, I think it is absolutely, far and away, the best use of the taxpayers’ resources,” McCaslin said.

Hines shared the same sentiments.

“We think this is a positive relationship between the two cities,” he said. “We’re solving a need within two communities with one facility.”

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