City officials say Clinton, Iowa has no resources to respond to animal-related calls and that state law doesn’t require them to provide that service.
The Clinton Humane Society shelter stopped accepting the city’s stray animals after Mayor Mark Vulich vetoed a proposed funding deal between the organization and the city.
The city council fell one vote short of passing a resolution to override the veto at a standing-room-only meeting February 12, 2013.
“Until a contract for animal impoundment is secured, the City is unable to respond to any calls for stray cats, requests for animal traps, or any other call outside of a dog bite, dog at-large, or dangerous animal,” said a February 14 statement from the City of Clinton.
The city plans to handle calls for impounding animals on a case-by-case basis.
“We recognize that this is a loss of a service to the citizens of Clinton, and staff is working continuously to create a solution to bring forward to the City Council for consideration,” the city statement said.
Residents with pets can still get animal licenses through the March 31, 2013 deadline date. After that date, a penalty is assessed to owners of unlicensed animals.
There was no date set for re-establishing animal control or shelter services in Clinton.
