By Jill Draper
Maybe this time it will work.
Eight years ago Kansas City’s Animal Health and Public Safety Division was found lacking in its approach to dangerous dogs and cruelty-neglect follow-ups, according to a city audit. They also were cited for a strained relationship with the nonprofit KC Pet Project that ran the city’s animal shelter.
Following the audit, animal control duties were turned over to KC Pet Project in 2020, but it, too, faced criticism for slow response times and a drop in enforcement.
After a KC resident was killed by a pack of dogs last fall, City Council members debated what to do. Eventually they voted unanimously to again split the duties, handing animal control back to city employees and continuing to outsource the animal shelter to the KC Pet Project.
This week 15 new Animal Services Division employees from the city (including a few rehired from the Pet Project) are prepared to handle an expected 100 daily calls using the 311 hotline as a dispatcher, says Forest Decker, director of the city’s Neighborhood Services, which oversees the new division.
The city has budgeted for more officers and a community engagement liaison. Meanwhile KC Pet Project will continue in its original role since it was established in 2011. Both groups are working in the same building in Swope Park, just off of Gregory Boulevard.
“This transition will benefit the residents by letting us focus on enforcement and letting the Pet Project focus on adoptions and animal welfare,” says Decker. “It’s going to be a strong relationship.”
Kate Meghji is KC Pet Project’s new chief executive officer, and she also wants a strong relationship with the city and community. Both she and Decker plan to focus on identifying spots with high numbers of strays and complaints, including areas that need more spay and neuter services and microchipping.
She’d also like to work with the City Council on ways to make apartments and rental housing more accessible for pet owners and vet care more affordable. And she has ideas on turning the Pet Project into something more like a community center where people could gather without committing to an adoption. There’s already a Roasterie coffee shop in the building, outdoor patio seating, and a row of outdoor pens where dogs romp around in group play every morning that might be fun to watch.
Right now, though, she’s still figuring out the details of running an organization of 170 employees and 400 volunteers who took in over 15,000 animals last year. The huge majority were young strays, which reflects the situation nationwide.
Meghji moved here recently with her husband and daughter (and one dog, two guinea pigs and several fish) from Washington, DC, where she worked as chief operating officer of the Humane Rescue Alliance. A few jobs back she was director of the Lawrence Humane Society in Kansas. She’s happy to return to the Midwest, she says, although not necessarily looking forward to our winter weather.
In addition to managing the day-to-day activities of the KC Pet Project, Meghji is meeting with the Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society of the US) to discuss issues relating to the big picture of animal welfare, including commercial dog breeders. Missouri is almost always at the top of the list for the worst conditions.
“We want to fix the systems that allow these large-scale puppy mill owners to continue,” she says. “Part of my job is to figure out what are the legislative initiatives impacting this organization and community.”
The KC Pet Project is also part of 33 animal service agencies in the metro area that are meeting under the leadership of Decker in Neighborhood Services. They gathered last April and will get together again this fall to discuss issues and plan more spay and neuter events in different parts of the city.
Decker says he was surprised by the number of animal welfare groups here, and that the city’s community engagement liaison, Sara Becker, would help by sharing information while others work on handling calls.
“I think we’re ready,” he says. “I think we’ll do a good job.”