PAWS for life to take over Pueblo Animal Services starting Jan. 1
Pueblo Animal Services is shutting its doors on Dec. 31, 2018. The City and County of Pueblo announced they will be giving the animal law enforcement and sheltering contract to another organization, PAWS for Life, starting Jan. 1.
PAS was in charge for 16 years, providing animal care and control service to the Pueblo community. Throughout the years, they took in between 6,000 to 9,500 pets a year with more than 125,000 pets since opening their doors in 2002. PAS was able to reunite more than 25,000 missing pets with families, they spayed/neutered almost 10,000 cats, and conducted more than 20,000 investigations into animal cruelty.
“While we are disappointed that 16 years of compassionate service and dedication are coming to an end, all of us at PAS care deeply about the health and safety of pets and people in our community,” said the director of PAS, Julie Justman, in a press release.
PAS said they will continue their services through private services, including the annual Pueblo Pet Check that will take place in April 2019. Their Colorado Springs location will also remain open for adoptions and veterinary services.
Starting Jan. 1, you can call PAWS for Life at (719) 544-3005 with any reports of stray animals, animal law enforcement matters, bite reports, to surrender an animal, or any other animal welfare concerns.
Previous Story 5:00 p.m, December 4, 2018:
Pueblo County Commissioners have pushed back their discussion and possible vote on whether or not to accept PAWS for Life’s bid to serve as the new operators of the county’s animal services.
Monday night, Pueblo City Council elected to award a three-year contract to PAWS for Life, a private ‘No Kill’ shelter in Pueblo, to run their animal services.
Tuesday afternoon, the offices of the Pueblo County Commissioners announced they will hold a special hearing at 2 p.m. on Thursday regarding the issue.
Commissioners initially thought they would discuss the animal services contract at Wednesday’s hearing. However, they previously scheduled a land use hearing on a potential solar panel farm on the county’s south side. That solar panel farm has drawn considerable criticism from potential neighbors.
Like with the city of Pueblo, the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region has been under contract with the county to operate Pueblo Animal Services for the past 16 years.
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UPDATE – 7:51 pm, December 3, 2018:
In a contentious 4-3 vote, Pueblo city council elected to approve PAWS for Life’s bid to manage Pueblo Animal Services at a special council meeting Monday night.
By choosing to elect PAWS as the new operators, Council is diverting from 16 years of shelter management under the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR). PAWS is a private ‘No Kill’ shelter that has been operating in Pueblo for forty years.
City Council President Chris Nicoll said PAWS was the right organization to operate the shelter as the city aims to euthanize fewer animals under the Pueblo Animal Protection Act (PAPA), which was passed by the city last February.
Council member Mark Aliff voted with Nicoll for a number of reasons, including PAWS’ lower price to run the shelter. Under PAPA, PAWS says they can run the shelter for $500,000 less than HSPPR. PAWS bid was approximately $1.7 million, while HSPPR’s was approximately $2.2 million.
“PAPA is something we’ve been doing for forty years,” said PAWS Director Linda Mitchell when asked why their bid was cheaper. “It costs more to euthanize animals in labor costs. There is a very high turnover in training, it is very expensive to euthanize animals, while it is very cheap to transfer them to other shelters.”
“As in many industries the cost of the work goes up every year,” said the current director of Pueblo Animal Services Julie Justman when asked why their pitch was more expensive. “Our bid included the cost of doing that work, in addition to added resources needed to adhere to PAPA.”
Justman says she was disappointed with the council’s decision, especially after sixteen years of serving the community and the animals.
The current Pueblo Animal Services staff is accused by some in the community of needlessly putting down healthy animals, which they deny.
“Pueblo Animal Services is saving more animals than ever before. We save eight out of ten animals that come to us,” said Justman. “We don’t turn any animals away, whether they are injured, diseased, or severely aggressive. We have not euthanized any healthy adoptable animal in many years.”
Under PAPA, shelters within Pueblo city limits are required to have a save rate of ninety percent. Pueblo County has not adopted PAPA.
“We believe that we can make a difference,” said Mitchell of PAWS. “Lately some of the euthanasia at Pueblo Animal Service that has been brought to our attention are unnecessary. We want to see that stopped.”
Council members were split on whether they believe HSPPR were saving as many animals as they could. Council member Larry Atencio, who voted against the PAWS bid, said he saw no problem with the current kill rate at the shelter.
HSPPR says it is unclear what will happen to the current staff at the shelter, but PAWS says they are willing to bring the current staff in.
Justman said that some staff had previously resigned from their roles at the shelter after harassment from the shelter’s critics in the community.
Council members that voted against the PAWS bid argued that the city and county committee’s recommendation was skewed. Four of the committee members rated HSPPR as the better option by a close margin. However, one committee member rated HSPPR so low that it may have compromised the committee’s findings.
Anita Crane, who runs the RFP department with the county, said at Monday’s meeting that based on the scores provided by the five committee members, one person was biased. She believes the recommendation made to the city and county was skewed.
Pueblo County Commissioners are expected to vote on whether to adopt PAWS for Life as the new shelter operators later this week, either Tuesday or Wednesday. Regardless of the commissioner’s vote, PAWS will serve as the city’s shelter managers. If the county votes no then they are responsible for their own animal services.
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PREVIOUS STORY:
Monday night at a special meeting, Pueblo City Council is expected to make an important decision regarding who will operate Pueblo Animal Services for the next three years.
Pueblo County Commissioners will discuss and possibly vote on the issue as well. That is expected to take place either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
The current contract that is up at the end of this year is held by the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR), which has operated Pueblo Animal Services since 2002.
HSPPR, Paws for Life Animal Welfare and Protection Society (PAWS), and Soldiers Security Protection have bid to take control over the shelter.
According to Monday’s Pueblo City Council agenda, a committee made up of both city and county officials reviewed the contract bids, and recommend that city council award a three-year contract to PAWS.
This recommendation was based upon four criteria identified by the city and county.
PAWS is a private ‘No Kill’ shelter and has been in Pueblo for forty years.
“I am ecstatic this is a really good opportunity for Pueblo. To bring in a local operator,” said Shanna Farmer, a spokesperson for Reform Pueblo Animal Services. The group has fought to bring no-kill policies to Pueblo Animal Services.
Farmer said the recommendation makes sense both morally and financially. PAWS bid was approximately five hundred thousand dollars less than HSPPR’s bid. The bids include the costs of both running the animal shelter and animal control services, all while under a ‘No Kill’ policy.
“Who can give us the most for our money and that would be PAWS,” said Farmer. “They came in under bid and they are also willing to uphold PAPA for a lower amount.”
PAPA, or Pueblo Animal Protection Act, which was approved by city council last February, requires any animal shelter within Pueblo city limits to operate as a no-kill shelter, starting in 2019. Any shelter must meet 90% no-kill rate to be considered a no-kill shelter.
The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region has been under scrutiny for their kill rate at the Pueblo shelter in recent years. Groups like Reform Pueblo Animal Services and other animal advocates in Pueblo have claimed that staff at the shelter are putting down healthy animals.
One of the most prominent stories was about a dog named Charlie. Charlie was a transfer from the shelter in Trinidad. After spending a long period of time in the shelter staff said he had behavioral issues and deemed him not fit for adoption after spending so much time in the shelter.
After Charlie was put down by staff, there was a large outcry amongst the public, especially on social media.
When asked for a comment, HSPPR said they have not been informed on any decision being made by the city or council and will have a better idea whether or not they will be moving forward as the operators of Pueblo Animal Services after Monday.
PAWS tells KRDO NewsChannel 13 they are also in the dark at this point, but they are encouraged to hear they have been recommended by the committee to the city council.
PAWS added they are optimistic and nervous heading into tomorrow’s potential vote. As is Farmer, who says a lot of work has been put into bringing real change to Pueblo Animal Services.
“Just a little less than two years ago when a few high profile animals were being killed here, we promised their deaths would not be in vain,” said Farmer. “So the fact that we are on the cusp of having a contractor come in that is willing to save every healthy treatable animal is great.”
