News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Putnam County Animal Shelter has requested increased contributions from Algood, Monterey and Baxter based on increased animal intakes.
Shelter Director Jennifer Tracy said she had calculated personnel expenses, then looked at the total animals coming from each jurisdiction to come up with percentages for contributions. She said outside of payroll the shelter covers costs with service fees.
Tracy said it had been difficult to determine budget trends during COVID. But things have normalized now.
“If I thought it was just a little flukey thing, I might have tried to ride it out. But with all the other added costs we can’t absorb that with the fees and the donations as readily as we could in those kind of interim years.”
The City of Cookeville operates the shelter. The county and the three other municipalities contribute money to the shelter’s work. Each of the five entities is in the middle of its budget process currently.
Tracy said spay and neuter are the best ways to head off future cost increases. Preventing unwanted animals prevents the cost to shelter unwanted animals, Tracy said.
She said spay and neuter were down a bit during the pandemic even before the clinic closed.
“I mean, the reason we’re here is because there’s not enough homes for pets that are being born,” Tracy said.
Tracy said a shortage of medical supplies during the pandemic created a situation in which vets were discouraged from performing spay and neuter which was declared an elective surgery.
“Just losing even that little bit of ground and then the four months that our local spay and neuter was closed,” Tracy said. “Everyone is having to play catch-up now.”
Tracy said she and the board had come to what they considered the most fair and consistent way to request an increase. She said no increase had been requested for all her years of service nor for several years previous.
