Harlingen animal shelter expanding as costs climb

The Harlingen animal shelter is seen in this undated photo. (Courtesy: Harlingen Animal Shelter/Facebook)

HARLINGEN — Nearly three months after opening its doors, the Harlingen Animal Shelter is expanding its program while its costs are climbing.

At City Hall, officials are opening a new account and tapping fines stemming from animal control citations to help fund the shelter’s operations.

Since 1988, the Rio Grande Valley Humane Society, under its former name, the Harlingen Humane Society, had operated the city-owned shelter.

Then in January, city officials took over operations a month after terminating the Humane Society’s $400,000 annual contract, claiming the “no-kill” agency breached its agreement when it refused to take in residents’ pets along with some animal control officers’ intake requests.

To jump-start the program, commissioners pulled $365,937 from the city’s general fund budget to foot the payroll for an 11-member staff running the shelter, with Shannon Harvill, the city’s environmental health director, overseeing the operation.

Since then, commissioners have funded requests including the purchase of a $38,360 animal transport van and a $900 computer software program while hiring a second animal adoption coordinator at a salary of $40,771 with benefits.

“It’s normal when you start a whole new division,” Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said Wednesday. “It’s the bare minimum when we start and as we grow, we expand. It’s part of the cost.”

While the shelter’s taking in about 20 animals a week, its staff’s giving out about 10 to 12 animals for adoption during weekends, he said, adding the shelter’s caring for 33 dogs, 45 puppies and a cat.

“The citizens’ response has been fantastic in adopting pets,” he said.

Now, Commissioner Frank Morales is requesting officials give him information regarding expenditures following the shelter’s start-up staffing costs.

“I’m sure there’s going to be another instance to where something else is going to be added,” he told Harvill during an April 2 meeting.

Morales also requested costs incurred as officials worked to move into the shelter after the Rio Grande Valley Humane Society pulled out of the building.

“Please include the labor, supplies and equipment put in by public works to bring it up to speed,” he told Harvill.

Based on Harvill’s request, commissioners purchased a $38,360 Ford Transit Connect Van “to transport animals to and from veterinarians’ clinics, off-site adoption events and foster homes,” according to the meeting’s agenda.

During the meeting, commissioners also set up the Harlingen Animal Shelter Fund, through which officials plan to tap into animal control citation fines to help fund the shelter’s operations.

“Specifically, (it’s) the money that is collected from animal control citations — animals-at-large running around, bites — any kind of citations from animal control,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said. “Then, the state takes its portion and the remaining portion goes to the general fund. It’s going to be the account to go back into the shelter, so the idea is that we would have a fund for spay and neuter and be able to assist and lessen the burden.”

Last month, commissioners, based on Harvill’s request, agreed to fund the $40,771 salary for a second animal adoption coordinator, bumping the staff’s payroll to 12 employees.

“We received an overwhelmingly positive response from the community since we opened the animal shelter,” Harvill told commissioners during the March 6 meeting. “We are posting animals everyday on Facebook. Taking pictures of those animals can be quite time-consuming. So, that is quite time-consuming — the adoption process — and we have been invited to quite a few off-site adoption events and we want to keep participating in those and be part of those and do everything within our power to get these animals into loving homes. For one person to do all that is very overwhelming and is very difficult.”

As part of Harvill’s requests, commissioners also purchased a $900 computer software program to help the shelter’s staff collect animals’ data.

Meanwhile, officials are planning to work with animal rescue shelters and foster groups to help dogs and cats find new homes.

“We want to try to do our best to ensure that they are nonprofits, that they are reputable, that the animals are going to be cared for,” Harvill told commissioners during the March 20 meeting, referring to rescue shelters, after requesting they enter into the programs.

“We also want to work with citizens to try to foster animals,” she said. “We had a lot of interest in this, a lot of people calling requesting to assist us in helping to foster animals, get them out of that shelter setting and help work with them in a home setting, and we feel that could be very beneficial to the animals as well.”

Commissioners also agreed to file for the animal shelter’s nonprofit status, which would allow the city to go after grant funding to help run operations.

During the meeting, commissioners, based on Harvill’s request, set the shelter’s fee stemming from its microchipping program.

To offset the cost of microchips, each purchased for $7.85, commissioners agreed to charge residents $10 as part of animal adoptions.

In February, commissioners set the shelter’s new adoption fees while hiring a veterinarian to oversee medical services, entering into a six-month contract paying $1,248 monthly with Robert Kellogg, a retired Harlingen veterinarian who co-founded the Humane Society during his 40-year career.

While the shelter’s charging residents $58 to adopt dogs, commissioners set fees for cats at $46, planning to release animals after tests, vaccines and microchipping.

For residents taking animals to the shelter, officials are charging $20 for dogs and cats while boosting fees to $40 for litters.

Based on Harvill’s recommendations, commissioners set the shelter’s adoption fees below the Humane Society’s rates, which include $102 to adopt dogs and $76 for cats, along with those charged by Brownsville’s animal shelter and the Palm Valley Animal Society.

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