CdA to shut down animal shelter

About 30 dogs and 50 cats are looking for new homes – and four employees are looking for new jobs – after it was announced Friday afternoon that the Coeur d’Alene Animal Shelter will close Feb. 28.

Dogs for which homes cannot be found will be sent to the Post Falls Animal Shelter, which will temporarily house dogs rounded up and given away for adoption in Coeur d’Alene.

“We just kind of got hit with all of this kind of quick,” said Rochelle Potter, office manager of the Coeur d’Alene shelter. She and the other staff members there were told of the closure a few days ago and have been working to tie up loose ends and get the remaining animals adopted.

“Hopefully we can have them all adopted in a week,” she said. “But the doors are going to be closing by the 28th.”

The Coeur d’Alene Animal Shelter was hit with heavy criticism by state Department of Agriculture officials in January when they found 10 violations at the shelter, including poor ventilation and drainage that left sewage on the floor and its smell lingering in the air.

Officials said they had cleaned up the shelter late last month and were about to ask the city for $50,000 to make necessary improvements plus $7,500 a month to run the shelter. The Watson Agency, which contracted with the city to operate the shelter, also floated the idea of making the shelter a nonprofit organization.

But City Administrator Wendy Gabriel said the city felt its money could be better spent on a different approach.

A representative for the Watson Agency was unavailable for comment Friday.

The Post Falls shelter has 42 indoor and seven outdoor kennels, which should be enough to handle both cities’ dogs, Post Falls police Lt. Scot Haug said. But Post Falls doesn’t have a facility for cats.

Potter said she was unsure what would happen to the Coeur d’Alene shelter’s cats or the city’s cat control needs once the shelter closes.

Post Falls will handle animal control in Cieur d’Alene and be reimbursed for the services under a contract that has yet to be drawn up, Haug said.

“They basically approached the city of Post Falls and asked if we could store animals on a temporary basis, so we’re going to help out in the short term,” Haug said.

If someone finds a stray cat in Coeur d’Alene, said Gabriel, “hopefully they love it and will keep it or take it to the Humane Society.”

But the Kootenai Humane Society is a no-kill shelter, so space is tight.

“That will be an additional burden for us,” Executive Director Phil Morgan said about the increase in cats the shelter could see.

But he praised the city’s decision to terminate the contract, calling it “the first step in moving forward to bettering the conditions for the animals.”

“While I think Watson was doing the best they could with the resources they had, it wasn’t enough to adequately manage the animals they had coming in,” Morgan said.

Gabriel said the decision to terminate the contract with the Watson Agency was financially driven, and it had nothing to do with the condition of the shelter or the numerous complaints that had been lodged against it. A city-issued press release said the city and the Watson Agency had “mutually agreed” to end the contract.

Gabriel said the city will look into starting its own shelter and forming a partnership with the county and the Humane Society. She said she hopes everything will be organized within six months.