In 2022, former Animal Control Officer (ACO) Jim Rogers resigned, and while the city looked for his replacement, a local nonprofit, Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter, ran shelter operations as a stop-gap until the city could hire Rogers replacement. The “stop-gap” lasted for nearly a year. Friends president Kristina Tirman said that’s where the lines started getting a little fuzzy.
“We were operating the city’s animal shelter as a volunteer organization, and I think, unfortunately, none of us expected that we would be doing it that long,” Tirman said. “I think that’s where the lines got pretty blurred, because our intention was never to run a shelter. Our intention was just to be a support group to help make the shelter a more, kind of, open and welcoming space in the community.”
The volunteer group handed over the reins in July of 2023 when Sam Pointer was hired on as the city’s new ACO. But just six months later, Pointer resigned, and a new ACO, Olivia Magni, was soon on the job.
Things got bumpier as volunteers and city staff tried to iron out responsibilities and best practices for animal care at the shelter. Then in July, volunteers learned that they’d been barred from the facility entirely. Tirman said they were told that security issues were the primary concern, like doors and windows being left open at the shelter. And she added that there was a miscommunication about how involved the nonprofit wanted to be with volunteer management.
Police Chief Robert Baty said accountability issues were raised after a pet went missing, and he was concerned that the incident opened the city up to legal liability.
“For whatever reason there were animals being taken in without ACO knowledge, animals being released without ACO knowledge, animals disappearing from the shelter without ACO knowledge,” Baty said. “So it was a big concern. It actually became a real big issue a couple months ago when a resident believes that his cat was lost within the animal control facility.”
While who removed the cat and why remain open questions, the episode contributed to the falling out between the police and the Friends. Baty said after the ACO shut out volunteers – a decision he subsequently agreed with – the plan was to revamp the volunteer program, but that process was slowed due to the temporary absence of the ACO. Police took over caring for the animals in the shelter in the meantime. Baty said at that time there were five cats and four dogs remaining in the shelter. One cat and two dogs were adopted out and the rest were euthanized.
That didn’t sit well with Sydney Strong, a community member and former vet tech who believes that barring the Friends from the shelter was extreme.
“I think that is crucial the shelter be run by an organization that can put the welfare of both the animals and the community before convenience,” Strong said. “The lost, abandoned, unwanted and mistreated animals of Sitka deserve a voice. In my personal opinion, I believe the way the Sitka Police Department locked out these groups is not only frightening, but it’s dangerous behavior, despite the discrepancies in the codes of who’s responsible for what.”
Strong was one of a dozen community members who spoke, urging the assembly to get volunteers back in the shelter and to resume vaccinating, spaying and neutering. At least fifty more packed the room in support. Chief Baty said he felt like the police and the Friends could come to a reasonable agreement to work together moving forward. And the assembly members agreed that getting to that point was a priority. Mayor Steven Eisenbesiz said updating the existing “memorandum of understanding” between the city and the volunteer group would be a critical first step.
“A new MOU is is a quicker step where we can get some people back to work, while I think this assembly, in conjunction with the community, needs to decide if we run animal control or if we run an animal shelter,” Eisenbeisz said.
Both Tirman and Baty agreed that their organizations are approaching the shelter operations with different priorities – animal control and animal care. And that is the root of a larger question: do Sitkans want the city to provide basic animal control services, which is what city code requires, or a no-kill shelter? And who should operate the shelter? Municipal Administrator John Leach pointed to models for collaborative shelter operation throughout the state. Juneau outsources both its animal control and shelter services to a nonprofit, and Anchorage maintains city-run animal control services but transfers animals to independently operated shelters. Assembly member Thor Christianson said there was no question that the vast majority of Sitkans expect some sort of shelter service.
“I think the most efficient way to do it for us is to have probably Friends [of Sitka Animal Shelter], because they’re already in place. If we tried to do this as a city on our own, it would be prohibitively expensive, but I think that we could move that way,” Christianson said. “But in the meantime, I think we need to get volunteers back in and I think we got a pretty good list of from the chief on what he would need to see to do that. I mean…it’s gonna be messy, but that’s okay…pets are messy.”
Assembly members suggested getting the groups in one room to hash out how to work together in the interim. Assembly member Christianson volunteered to facilitate the conversation between the volunteers, police chief and city staff. A date for that meeting has not yet been announced.
