Animal Foundation gets 10-year county contract

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

Closing another chapter in the divisive debate over who should care for Clark County's unwanted and runaway pets, the Clark County Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to award a 10-year contract to the Animal Foundation.

County officials have said the contract will probably pay the foundation about $11 million, and have estimated the arrangement will save the county about $1 million over 10 years.

In February the commissioners selected the local nonprofit, which runs the Lied Animal Shelter, to run a centralized shelter for dogs and cats in Las Vegas beginning in two years and instructed city staff to negotiate a contract with the group.

The contract calls for the foundation to build and open an addition to its shelter by March 31, 2005, and begin taking animals for the county in June 2005.

The agreement provides for fining of the foundation if it mistreats animals and also allows the county to terminate the contract with five-day notice.

An opponent of the contract, Doug Duke, director of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he strongly favored those strict provisions in the contract.

"If enforced, the hair-trigger default period and other measures forcing better accountability should hold the shelter's feet to the fire for greater performance for the animals and public," Duke said in a prepared statement.

The society had supported extending the county's contract with the Dewey Animal Shelter past 2005. Dewey unsuccessfully sought a contract extension. The society has its offices on Dewey's grounds.

Animal Foundation Chairwoman Janie Greenspun Gale, a member of the Greenspun family, which owns the Sun, told the commissioners Tuesday that the foundation will increase pet adoptions and bring spay and neuter rates to nearly 100 percent.

"We aren't the lesser of two evils," she said, adding that the Animal Foundation runs one of the best shelters in the West.

The Animal Foundation will be paid $1.3 million for the first 13 months of its contract, from June 2005 through July 2006; then $1.2 million a year for the next five years. For each of the remaining years of the contract the foundation will be paid $800,000 plus bonuses of 3.5 percent for each year adoption rates are increased by 5 percent.

The county will pay Dewey $1.26 million this year. Dewey's costs are projected to be more than $1.3 million in 2005 and more than $1.4 million in 2011, according to a county statement.

James Spinello, county assistant director of administrative services, has said the contract with the Animal Foundation will probably save the county about $100,000 a year.

"We believe this contract is very good for animals, for animal lovers and for the taxpayers," Spinello said in a prepared statement.