Shelter boost: Recommendation would extend contract at Dewey facility

Adrienne Packer

Friday, March 16, 2001 | 11:50 a.m.

Despite a series of documented problems regarding code violations and kennel cleanliness, Clark County commissioners are poised to grant Dewey Animal Shelter a five-year contract extension.

The recommendation, made by Commissioner Mary Kincaid, comes four years before Dewey's existing $1.1 million per year contract expires.

Kincaid was out of town and could not be reached for comment, but Dewey's president, Dr. Joseph Freer, said the shelter needs a financial commitment from the county before it can begin major renovations.

Freer said Dewey plans to rip out its concrete-floor and indoor-outdoor dog kennels and replace them with more than 200 indoor cages. It will also build two additional rooms for cats brought to the shelter.

"The No. 1 kennels in the country are indoor and up off the ground, not a cement-floor type situation," Freer said. "This will bring us into the proper century."

According to memos from the county and the Health District, Dewey is hardly a top-notch facility, which is why the proposed contract extension is puzzling to some animal lovers.

In the past six months, the shelter has been admonished by the county's administrative services division numerous times. Violations range from keeping kennels too cold and wet to leaking electrical fixtures to cremation room gas lines being supported by bricks.

Dewey has also been reprimanded for releasing pets for adoption without first sterilizing them -- a violation of its contract with the county.

In January county inspectors saw as many as 36 cats held in transport carriers stacked in the shelter's receiving room. None of the cats had been given water and some were believed to have been there for nearly 30 hours, according to a county memo.

"Other professional animal care facilities have been criminally prosecuted for like infractions," Joy Salmon, the county's community services manager, wrote to Freer in January. "These conditions are deemed exigent and must be rectified immediately."

Dewey's treatment of animals isn't the only concern. The Clark County Health District has expressed serious concern over how Dewey's operations affect the public.

In a letter dated March 13, Clark County Health District officials said waste from cremated animals is drained into the ground rather than into a septic tank or sewer system. A better plan of handling euthanized animal carcasses is due to the Health District by March 23.

Joe Boteilho, the county's animal control manager, who oversees the shelter off Decatur Boulevard, called Dewey's violations serious and declined to say whether the facility deserves a contract extension.

"That's a policy decision and I'll have to refer it to the board," Boteilho said.

Although Freer said the facility has responded swiftly to complaints lodged by visitors and the county, memos from the administrative service division suggest the county has at times been frustrated by Dewey's reaction time.

Aside from repeated warnings regarding the sterilization of animals, Boteilho told shelter supervisors three times in as many days that the temperature inside the kennels was below 50 degrees -- industry standards say the temperature should be between 60 and 70 degrees.

Freer said the temperature is difficult to control because the dog kennels are indoor-outdoor cages and they're 20 years old.

"You're fighting an old building and old technology," Freer said. "But it's always been taken care of; nothing has ever been ignored."