FORT SMITH -- City directors had Fort Smith Animal Haven present at their study session Tuesday to see how the city can help with a recent increase in stray and missing animal alerts from the public.
Shelter Board treasurer Brenda Altman said the shelter's mission is to care for dogs and cats abandoned by owners and lost or injured animals brought in by Fort Smith Animal Control -- not feral animals -- and either reunite them with their families or place them in a new, loving home.
Altman said the shelter is at maximum capacity with 397 animals -- 160 dogs and 67 cats in the shelter, and 100 dogs and 63 cats in foster homes. She said due to lack of space, some shelter animals are kept outside, but they have access to shade and water at all times and are supplemented with zinc to deal with heat stress. The shelter also has ordered fans typically used for farm animals to be placed outside.
Altman said the transfer rate for dogs is 58% and adoption rate is 16%; the figure is nearly reverse for cats with 16% transfers and 56% adoptions. Many shelters in southern states are full, so the Animal Haven is looking for additional partners to transfer animals into northern states, she said.
"In Chicago they're paying $400 or $500 for these animals, and we can't adopt them out for $50. They don't pay us, but that's why they will take our animals, is because they can turn them around," Altman said.
Altman said the shelter has a 4% euthanasia rate, which is below the 10% outlined by the Animal Humane Society to be considered a no-kill shelter. She said the average length of stay for an animal is roughly 45 days, which is partially due to a recent increase in animal cruelty cases, which are required to be kept by the shelter for 60 days. Other animals are required to stay only five days before they can be adopted.
"And that's pretty sad. The things we're seeing right now, I think we've had 28 cruelty cases come into the shelter since the first of July," Altman said.
Altman said the shelter is concerned about the potential recession and inflation and people abandoning their animals at the shelter as a result. She said Animal Haven's veterinarians want to travel to Hope Campus once a month to feed and treat any animals owned by homeless people, and work with Animal Control to help care for residents' animals so they can stay in their homes and not at the shelter.
Fort Smith Animal Control is part of the Police Department and therefore receives money through the city.
The shelter is also financed through the city, as well as public and private donations.
At-large Director Robyn Dawson asked police Chief Danny Baker if he's pleased with how the shelter is being managed. Baker said there has been a marked improvement, but the shelter needs more space, as well as city support through its ordinances.
"I have always had a little bit of reservation about the amount of money that we spend, but in comparison to what other cities spend of comparable size and jurisdictions, I think we're getting a pretty good bargain in that regard," Baker said. "I think if we bolstered our ordinances, or we weren't having to do so many transports and spending money to ship these animals out of Fort Smith and actually returning them to their owners and holding their owners accountable, we wouldn't be spending so much."
Chapter 4 of the city code lays out city rules regarding animals.
Article 7, adopted in August 2019, requires any resident with a dog or cat older than four months to get a license for the animal within 60 days. This time limit also applies to new residents with a dog or cat. All dogs and cats must have microchip identification, as well as some form of secondary identification, barring exceptions granted by the city.
The city also offers different pet license fees for dogs and cats micro-chipped and altered -- meaning spayed or neutered -- and those that aren't with some exceptions, according to the code. Altered and micro-chipped pets come with a fee of $10 each for their lifetime, while their unaltered and non-micro-chipped counterparts are $60 each annually. However, people 65 years or older don't have to pay a license fee for an altered and micro chipped pet and only $20 annually per pet that isn't.
Breeder licenses that are valid for one year are available from the city for $500 per dog or cat, in addition to a city-issued business license, the code states.
Altman said having animals micro-chipped would help with the number of strays, as Animal Control checks for them when they catch an animal.
Dawson agreed there are certain things the shelter cannot fix or control, and the city may have gotten lax on animal ordinances due to its partnership with Animal Haven.
"I do think the shelter is doing the best that they can do. I don't want them taking over their capacity that they're allowed to have of animals," Dawson said. "I want them to stay only within the limits of the capacity that we agreed upon. But we've got to address things like licenses, micro-chipping and spay and neutering for animals in this town, and we have dropped that ball."
At-large Director Neal Martin questioned if the city could find a way to incentivize pet owners obeying the ordinance, and dis-incentivize those that aren't. He asked the board have another meeting about this topic so they can discuss options.
Lois Madden (right), office manager, assists Shatausha Davis of Fort Smith with the adoption of two cats, Moxxie and Blitzo, on Thursday, July 28, 2022, at the Fort Smith Animal Haven in Fort Smith. At this week’s City of Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting, representatives from the Animal Haven discussed their operations and how the facility is too overcrowded to take in stray animals. Visit nwaonline.com/220731Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
Lois Madden, office manager, pets a pair of black cats on Thursday, July 28, 2022, at the Fort Smith Animal Haven in Fort Smith. At this week’s City of Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting, representatives from the Animal Haven discussed their operations and how the facility is too overcrowded to take in stray animals. Visit nwaonline.com/220731Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)