Animal Foundation seeking more money

The embattled Animal Foundation shelter is scheduled to update Clark County commissioners Tuesday on steps it’s taking to improve operations, and ask for additional taxpayer dollars.

The shelter — partially funded by the county, the city of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas — has been saddled with increased animal intakes, a hike in euthanasia rates and staff dissatisfaction.

In April, the county instructed shelter executives to prepare a presentation for the commission. A seven-page outline was uploaded to Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

The price tag for new initiatives is $585,000 a year, to be shared by the local municipalities, which already pledged $50,000 annual for veterinary services.

The nonprofit’s executives are expected to pitch an Arizona-based “pet support” call center, which would provide assistance 12 hours each day of the week, and be staffed by five counselors and two supervisors, the outline said.

The shelter is also trying to fill six additional full-time staff positions, reduce appointment wait times for found animals by to 72 hours by the end of August, and reduce owner-surrenders of pets by 20 percent by year’s end.

It also wants to invest in “office modifications” and information systems with a one-time public subsidy of $20,000, the outline said.

The municipalities already provide about $5 million annually to keep the shelter afloat, which translates to about one-third of the foundation’s overall budget, the outline said. Clark County currently funds about 43 percent of shelter services.

Las Vegas and county officials have grilled the foundation, launched audits on the use of public funds, The city even prepared its own report on how much it would cost to fund and operate a new shelter.

Independent rescues and animal advocates regularly pack the public meetings in which the foundation is discussed, and flood lawmakers with complaints.

The foundation has countered that the issues with the shelter are not different than those faced by similar facilities across the country following the pandemic and its economic downturn.

Commissioner Jim Gibson previously said that the shelter’s failure is not an option.

Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who requested the report, said in April he was open to a discussion about additional financial resources.

“They have a great facility,” he said. “They’re not evil people, they love animals as much as anybody.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.