Updated May 21

The Cascade County Sheriff’s Office asked the County Commission to approve an agreement during their May 21 meeting to establish dog shelter services with the Maclean Cameron Animal Adoption Center.

Commissioners unanimously approved the agreement with no discussion during their May 21 meeting and there was no public comment on the agreement.

Under the agreement, the county will pay a flat monthly rate of $200, or $2,400 annually.

That fee increases to $400 per month, or a portion of a month, if Maclean needs additional shelter for animals, such as in the instance of an animal hoarding case, according to CCSO officials.

The agreement renews annually with the same terms but the monthly fee may be modified.

The county has been using dog shelter services from the Great Falls Animal Shelter.

During the May 15 commission work session, Capt. Landon Koteskey, said that the county paid the city shelter for dogs whether they were held or an owner came to get them.

City Commission approves new animal shelter fees [2023]

It was “not affordable,” Koteskey said.

In September, the City Commission adopted an increased fee for law enforcement intakes.

Koteskey said during the May 15 work session that they didn’t know about the fee change beforehand.

The Electric reported on the proposed change on Sept. 3 and the changes were considered during a Sept. 19 public hearing. Those documents were publicly available.

Koteskey told county commissioners that “nobody let us know until we got a bill.”

He told county commissioners that CCSO had paid “exorbitant” bills to the city shelter.

City considering increased animal shelter fees [2023]

Sheriff Jesse Slaughter told The Electric last week that the county had paid the city about $1,400 on dog shelter services over the last two months.

Slaughter said CCSO’s annual budget for animal shelter services was $10,000.

He said switching to Maclean for dog shelter services would allow the county the ability to be less punitive with animal citations to recover costs and save taxpayer money.

Koteskey told county commissioners during their May 15 work session that CCSO met with Deputy Manager Chuck Anderson about the fee change after it was approved and the city gave a grace period.

The fee had previously been $30 per dog for CCSO, but when city staff looked at the cost of service for those animals, “we found we were continuously in a negative balance,” Anderson told The Electric in an email last week.

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In September, the city staff report for the fee change stated there had been a $30 fee for law enforcement for more than a decade, but staff wasn’t able to find any resolution establishing that fee and Anderson told The Electric last week that there wasn’t an agreement in place regarding the services the city shelter would provide and what was expected of CCSO.

Anderson told The Electric in a May 15 email that after the city commission passed the new shelter fees, the city let CCSO know that they needed to codify an agreement and “also entered into discussions on the cost of care/service per animal. We sent the CCSO a draft [memorandum of understanding], with an associated cost of $140 per dog brought to the shelter, asked for feedback, and had not received any.  I heard through channels that the CCSO was working with the Maclean to provide services.”

The fee covers some of the costs to intake, perform health exams, kennel, and to cover for the three to four day hold period for animals brought into the shelter from CCSO and Montana Highway Patrol, city staff wrote in their September staff report.

This fee does not apply to the Great Falls Police Department.

The city animal shelter is an open admission municipal animal shelter, which serves the City of Great Falls and Cascade County, according to the city.

The city stopped accepting animals from county residents in October 2021, Anderson told The Electric in the fall.

City animal shelter offering new licenses [2023]

Anderson told The Electric that the change was communicated to the public at the time via a press release and social media posts.

The Electric has been unable to locate a press release, email or social media post regarding the change. The Electric asked city staff for such documentation and as of yet, it has not been located.

Anderson told The Electric in September that the fee change was “driven by the number of animals at the shelter and the increasing stress on staff to provide the appropriate capacity for care for those animals.”

The four main source of animal intake at the shelter are the city animal control, CCSO, city residents and county residents.

Discussions continuing between city, Maclean ongoing for potential animal services partnership [2020]

Anderson said in September that city residents fund the shelter via taxes and the city has an agreement with CCSO for animal intake, “so we could not cease taking in animals from those sources. Unfortunately, there is no assistance from the county to fund operations, so to be able to provide the appropriate care for the animals and to ensure the health and well-being of the staff, the decision was made to stop the intake of county animals. We will continue to evaluate this, so the right care can be provided for any animal brought into the shelter.”

In a May 15 email response to questions from The Electric, Anderson said that the impact of CCSO switching to Maclean for dog shelter services “should be minimal as the county had increased the scrutiny in which they turn over dogs to the animal shelter.  We also installed a chip reader at the shelter for CCSO to use to help identify dogs and reunite them with their owners, decreasing the need to turn animals in.”

During their May 15 work session, County Commissioner Jim Larson, said that the agreement with Maclean, “sounds like a better deal.”