Animal shelter talks ramp up again

Longtime animal advocate Diane Parkhurst cringed when she heard about the cat frozen to a Cloquet sidewalk earlier this month. But she is heartened by citizen actions that allowed the cat to survive, thanks to "lost and found" groups on social media getting word around.

That's what the city and county are relying on these days when it comes to lost and stray pets after the Friends of Animals Humane Society ceased operations in Cloquet last summer. Since then, there has been plenty of community feedback about the city and county needs for a new shelter. Next week, the public will hear about negotiations the city of Cloquet has been having with Carlton County officials about dealing with animals in the region.

It will likely not include the Friends of Animals group or the building that it tried to refurbish for animal care.

City administrator Aaron Reeves said the meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall will inform city leaders from across the county on what he and county officials have been discussing.

"We have a plan," he said. He did not want to provide details before addressing those at the meeting Tuesday.

Any official discussion has not included the mostly defunct FOA group. "We don't talk to them any more," Reeves said.

Carlton County Commissioner Dick Brenner said he wants to hear from cities and townships about how things are going when it comes to stray animals. He said that after an initial flurry of public reaction last summer, things have been quiet.

Before the shelter closed, FOA and the city got into disagreements over the cost of the contract for services and how those services were being administered. At one point, the city began using Animal Allies in Duluth to house its stray animals.

A new building?

Reeves said an inspection of the FOA building left him and others flat when it comes to fixes needed for a proper animal facility.

"It's cheaper to build a new building," he said.

Whether or not to do that is a "tough questions to answer," Brenner said.

Sheila Keup, director of the Humane Society of Douglas County in Superior, said she "strongly" agrees that the FOA building at 1001 Ave. B is not an option.

"It's not set up to bring animals in," she said. She looked at the building at the request of the city.

Keup said the layout of the building, the materials used in its reconstruction and the areas created to house animals just doesn't work in keeping animals safe from disease. She said the layout also isn't conducive for people coming in to possibly adopt pets.

Another example, she said, is the medical treatment area location on the second floor. It should be near the area where animals are first brought into the building, she said.

Keup said these may seem like small things to outsiders but all together they are "huge" when it comes to keeping animals safe and healthy. Douglas County was in a similar position as Carlton County four years ago when the Superior shelter closed. Keup said the process to build a facility took about a year and "it was crazy. But it was so worth it."

She said her facility has seen adoptions increase because the facility allows for better visits for potential adoptees. The care put into the layout and attention to details like air ventilation has kept animals healthy the past three years the building has been in use, she said.

"It's a lot of work," she said. "It can be intimidating. It's a big project."

Limbo on Avenue B

The fate of the FOA building in Cloquet is unclear. Renovations on the building on Avenue B are what broke the back of the nonprofit organization.

According to news reports when the closing was announced in July, FOA owed nearly $100,000 to contractors after remodeling cost overruns. The total cost was more than $700,000.

Mary Nelson, the interim director and a board member of FOA when it closed, did not return a call asking for comment. The phone line for FOA is no longer functional. It isn't clear if its board of directors is still intact or how its finances have shaken out.

There have been comments made on a Facebook page created to fill the gap for those finding or losing animals. It's called "Friends of Animals Lost and Found Pets of Northern Mn."

A comment from the page administrator put out a "disclaimer" on Jan. 8, saying that people who want a shelter need to speak out. "If you believe Carlton (County), not just Cloquet, needs a new animal shelter, please contact your city, county and reservation officials," the post said. "It does not have to be Friends of Animals that comes back. Carlton (County) just needs a shelter."

City administrator Reeves said a program to get Cloquet animals microchipped has gone well. It includes a chip reader available to the police department to readily identify animals. He said there have been few calls about stray animals.

Brenner said he hasn't heard a lot either, but likes the idea of spending available county money to mirror across the county the microchipping Cloquet has done.

Shelters in the region, including those in Superior and Duluth, have reported an uptick in animals coming to the shelters. The Missing Pets in The Northland Facebook page has also had a lot of success reuniting owners with lost pets and covers the entire region.

Cloquet Mayor Roger Maki said he is looking forward to hearing more about the shelter plan. Reeves plans to make a presentation to the city council at its February meeting.

"He's trying to find a solution," Maki said. "I'd like to see a countywide solution so it's not just on the city. It's important that something happens."

Back in time

Despite the social media sites used for communicating pet emergencies in the county, animal advocate Parkhurst says "it feels like we're back 35 years." She had been fostering neglected pets in her home in the early 1980s. In 1987, she helped create Friend of Animals, which makes the developments in recent months even more difficult.

She said she is no longer on the board for FOA and it was a "hostile separation."

"The management didn't exist," she said. "It was all grossly mishandled."

"It's not easy keeping a shelter going," she added.

She hopes for a new day for animal welfare in the county through a new shelter or humane society.

"I'm very encouraged that we have officials who see a need for this," she said.

Parkhurst said the past three decades have seen an evolution. "Responsibility toward strays has changed," she said. "It's not just an animal problem. It's a human problem. What we do about it is what matters."