FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2012

Seattle Humane Society is offering to provide animal sheltering services to the city of Bellevue and four other Eastside cities, in a proposal that would provide better care for the animals and better service to the public – all at a lower cost to taxpayers. 

Sheltering services for the cities are currently provided by the King County shelter in Kent, in contracts set to expire this year.

“Seattle Humane is a leader in the nation. Our door is open, our team is standing by, and our volunteers and donors are ready to do what’s best for homeless, lost, stray and abandoned pets in our community,” said Seattle Humane Society CEO, David Loewe.

Seattle Humane Society is offering to shelter animals for more than 50 percent less than the county charges per animal, and it has proposed a plan in which the cities keep their animal licensing revenue rather than handing it over to the county.

“At a time when cities are cutting budgets and laying off staff, it doesn’t make sense to pay more for these services, when a nonprofit like Seattle Humane can do it better,” Loewe said.

Seattle Humane Society is urging animal-loving citizens on the Eastside to write to their city officials to support the Bellevue-based nonprofit as the best agency to provide animal sheltering services in Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Mercer Island and Newcastle.

“We believe the public would be bewildered at how their tax dollars are being spent with the King County shelter system. A release by the City of Kirkland tells of a recent charge of $2,500 to pick up two stray guinea pigs,” Loewe said. “It’s understandable that Kirkland is ready to find another provider of sheltering services.”

Aside from superior care for animals, a benefit of having Seattle Humane Society perform sheltering of lost pets is that if the animal is lost on the Eastside, it can be found at a shelter on the Eastside. Under the county contract, animals lost on the Eastside are sheltered in Kent.

As a donor-funded charity, Seattle Humane has provided shelter services to animals in the community for more than 115 years. Some of its accomplishments in 2011 include:

• A life-saving rate of 96 percent, one of the highest in the nation
• Finding loving homes for 5,500 pets
• A corps of 1,400 volunteers including 800 foster families
• No time limits on healthy and adoptable animals
• Medical care for pets with treatable injuries and illnesses
• The achievement of 100,000 spay/neuter surgeries