Animal Foundation to face questions by county commission

The embattled Animal Foundation is scheduled to update Clark County officials Tuesday regarding the status of the nonprofit shelter.

Commissioner Tick Segerblom requested the presentation about the contract for sheltering services the foundation provides to the county.

Segerblom said during a recent commission meeting that he wanted to “express his concern” about the shelter, from which he was “getting lots of emails and comments about the current situation.”

The shelter has been embroiled in animal-advocate claims of mismanagement, animal overpopulation and increased dog euthanasia.

Clark County, like the city of Las Vegas, is currently auditing the public dollars it provides the nonprofit.

“I’m just glad we’re having this meeting and hopefully it gives them the opportunity to tell is what’s been going on,” Segerblom told the Review-Journal Monday. “The worst thing that we can do is have complaints and not respond to them,” Segerblom added.

If solutions rely on more funding, Segerblom said he’s willing to have that conversation and support increased resources.

Public yearly funding for the shelter from the county and Las Vegas and North Las Vegas municipalities hovers at just below $5 million, which constitutes about one-third of the nonprofit’s overall budget.

The shelter’s current crisis rose to the forefront in September when Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman showed up unannounced to the shelter’s intake, 655 N. Mojave Road, and documented what she described as “disgusting” conditions.

Not long after that, eight staffers from the intake team quit suddenly, writing in a letter that they felt overworked and belittled.

Through a report presented in January, the city of Las Vegas determined that it would need to spend $35 million to build its own shelter, and about $6 million a year to run it. No further action was taken.

The shelter’s executive board contends the situation is not unique to Las Vegas amid a national crisis in the shelter industry, which the pandemic and the economic downturn exacerbated with an increase of shelter animals and hiring challenges.

The Animal Foundation in 2022 took in 14,122 dogs, euthanizing 2,261 of them, about 30 and 90 percent increases, respectively, according to a report from the nonprofit. A total of 933 of canines were put down because their owners requested it.

“Not good,” Segerblom said.

The foundation noted in March that the shelter also experienced an increase in adoptions.

“As an organizational policy, only animals not considered to be healthy and/or treatable are candidates for humane euthanasia,” the foundation said. “Euthanasia rates vary depending on the population of animals we serve in a given month or year.”

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