Kelso to partner with humane society after county doesn't offer contract

The Kelso City Council has voted to enter into a contract with the Humane Society for Southwest Washington for the remainder of the year, as the county's program to shelter animals picked up by animal control is not fully developed.

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The decision comes about a month after the council voted 4-2 against entering into an agreement with the nonprofit to possibly join the county's plan instead.

Mayor Veryl Anderson suggested that the council hold a workshop later in the year to review other options for animal sheltering, including the county's program, which could be fully fledged by then.

Deputy Mayor Lisa Alexander and Councilmember Keenan Harvey were the only dissenting votes to contract with the humane society.

When the council voted on the contract on March 17, Councilmembers Brian Wood and Mike Karnofski voted to approve it, while everyone else opposed, and councilmember Jim Hill was absent.

Even with the vote against the contract, the city had extended its humane society contract for the first four months of the year until another plan was in place.

Last week, Harvey questioned whether the city's humane society payment would cover items he does not believe the municipality should pay for, including the nonprofit spay-and-neuter clinic, and pet food or dog training for low-income residents.

Alexander said she was opposed to Longview being listed as the lead of an interlocal agreement among the other cities in the contract, rather than having Kelso contract directly with the nonprofit.

The council had already agreed to negotiate the contract together with Longview as the lead, Kelso Building and Planning Services Manager Mike Murray explained at the April 21 meeting.

Previously, Alexander and Harvey voiced issues about the success of and the city's liability for the humane society's trap-and-release program for stray cats, as requested by the nonprofit to shelter animals.

That program to spay or neuter stray, unidentifiable cats and then release them at the location where they were picked up was unanimously approved by the council earlier this month, despite the vote against the contract and Alexander and Harvey's concerns.

How did we get here?

Animal control has been an issue for local municipalities since the previous local humane society stopped offering the services due to costs.

Prior to 2023, the now-defunct nonprofit Cowlitz County Humane Society handled the county's animal control. It ceased managing animal control in January 2024 - ceding that work to local law enforcement agencies - then folded the following fall before handing off its assets to the Humane Society for Southwest Washington in Vancouver.

Now, the law enforcement agencies need a place to shelter animals they pick up.

Harvey has a history with the previous humane society, too. He was fired as the Cowlitz County Humane Society executive director in 2017 after filing a grievance against some of the organization's board of directors, according to The Daily News archives.

Staff advises more liability without humane society

Murray suggested the city contract with the humane society last week, as he did before the March 17 vote, due to cost and the services provided.

The county did not offer the city a contract for those services, though the council had asked for staff to pursue that option.

The county only offered to shelter animals picked up by Kelso animal control, while expenses such as veterinary care would be covered separately, Murray said. Without a contract, shelting services could end at any time, he added.

Creating a Kelso program to cover minimal services would cost $60,000 to $75,000 for the remainder of the year, Murray told the council.

Stray cats would not be picked up in this program, only dogs. Animal neglect, abuse and hoarding cases would also be addressed.

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For Kelso to create its own fully developed animal sheltering program, the city would be out $140,000 for the rest of 2026 and face increased liability from animal bites, veterinary services, staff injuries and more, similar to the city's minimal program.

The Kelso part-time animal control position would have to become fulltime if the city created its own program. That position's other job, ensuring code compliance with abandoned cars and campers, would be eliminated.

Contracting with the humane society through an interlocal agreement with the city of Longview would cost $69,781.25, with no liability issues, as the nonprofit would take the lead, Murray said.

He also mentioned some false information circulating online, including "an internet post" explaining the nonprofit's euthanasia rates of healthy animals. Murray said the "post was created by skewing some incomplete data" because the full information on the animals' health status was not in the report, only the results of a five-minute assessment conducted when the animals first arrived at the clinic.

More importantly, he said the report showed the nonprofit's high success rate.

"They had a 75% adoption rate and a 10% owner-return rate, and I can pretty much guarantee you that if we are running our own shelter services, we will not come as close to those numbers," he said. "We will be way below those, because we will not know what we're doing."

Harvey doesn't receive stats from humane society

Despite Murray's overwhelmingly positive recommendation for the humane society, Harvey wanted to wait until a May 5 Cowlitz County commissioner meeting that is set to include Kelso, Longview, Woodland and Castle Rock, the original negotiators of the interlocal agreement with the humane society.

Harvey said he couldn't vote on the contract because he hadn't received the statistics he'd requested from the nonprofit and therefore didn't have enough information to make a decision. He also cited data from citizens' emails, and said he couldn't determine whether the information in the city's staff report was factual.

"What Mr. Murray presented today, it's kind of hard to argue with, but is that a fact? Is that true? Is that actual?" Harvey asked at the April 21 meeting. "We don't know that because I haven't been provided statistics."

Harvey said he received no response when he requested such information from the humane society. A humane society board member, who Harvey said identified himself as a lawyer, eventually called him.

"... This is exactly why I want to sit down with you guys and have this discussion," he said toward humane society representatives at the April 21 meeting, "but I haven't been afforded that respect throughout this whole conversation."

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