Council Backs Short-Term Animal Shelter

Bowie pet owners may no longer have to travel to a county facility to pick up lost pets after the city council voted Monday to establish in 2014.

In the proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget, city staff recommended keeping the shelter in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for one more year to allow for more data collection from Bowie Animal Control to determine if there was a need for the shelter.

Emotions ran high at times as the council debated the merits of a city-funded facility for Bowie's lost and stray animals. 

Councilman Dennis Brady (at-large), a long time advocate for a city-run shelter, encouraged his fellow council members to support moving the facility to the FY2014 budget.

“We should show compassion for our four-legged friends and their human companions, better known as our constituents,” Brady said.

The cost of the shelter and a perceived lack of need were sticking points for Mayor G. Frederick Robinson and Mayor Pro Tem Diane Polangin, who both applauded the work of CLAW but opposed moving the shelter out of the CIP.

Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare (CLAW) has offered to fund the construction of a short-term facility to the tune of $154,000, according to CLAW president Connie Carter. However, city staff estimate that it would cost Bowie around $122,800 to run the shelter annually—money Polangain said she felt could be better spent elsewhere.

“I think the real focus should be on the question of need,” Polangin said. “It doesn’t seem prudent to start a new service when the data does seems to support it.”

Currently, the city has a short-term holding facility for lost local pets, but the facility does not hold pets overnight. According to data from the city’s animal control department, Bowie delivered a total of 77 animals to the county facility over the past nine months.

Robinson agreed with Polangin.

“There’s no question that this is the nice thing to do but in all candor, I just don’t see it rising to a level of need,” he said, adding that over a ten year period, running the shelter could cost the city upwards of $1 million.

Brady challenged the estimated cost, citing the fact the city’s animal control department comes in consistently under budget by around $30,000 each year. He added that pet reclamation fees could be as high as $30,000 to help offset the cost of running the shelter.

There were some tense moments in council chambers, but ultimately members voted 5-2 to move the shelter out of CIP and into the FY2014 budget. Robinson and Polangin were the two opposing votes.

Carter was pleased with the vote. She said she knows there will be a lot of work to do, but she is looking forward to the challenge and is confident that the shelter will develop a new revenue stream to help fund operations.

“The citizens need it, the citizens deserve it, and it’s about time,” Carter said through tears of joy.

“The good won,” she said.