Louisa County, Iowa residents who want to visit the nearest animal shelter will have to go to a neighboring county after the Board of Supervisors rejected a request for seed money to build a local shelter.
However, the county does have an informal policy to reimburse rural residents who take animals to a shelter in neighboring Des Moines or Muscatine counties, as long as there is enough money in the animal control budget.
Board members agreed to formalize an official reimbursement policy at their May 23 meeting.
At the May 16th board meeting, Wynter Saville, a county resident, requested funding to open an animal shelter in Louisa County, because she often picked up stray or abandoned cats in Port Louisa Township and took them to a humane society outside the county.
She said she could no longer afford to do that because of the fees and wanted to open an animal shelter in Louisa County. However, the supervisors would not approve the expenditure.
I'm not real supportive of establishing a humane society with county funds, Supervisor Forrest Bartenhagen said.
Supervisor Ken Purdy said because there are two humane societies in neighboring counties, it would probably be less expensive to take the animals to either of those locations than to operate a shelter. He said the county has $1,200 budgeted annually for animal control.
Louisa County, located in southeast Iowa, has about 12,000 residents.
Posted: May 19, 2006, 5:00 a.m. EST