The Billings City Council took on the future of animal sheltering services in the city, working to figure out what comes next after the contract with the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS) expired at the end of June.
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The building on Monad Road that used to be YVAS is now being used by the city for animal control, and soon the city can find out what other uses it will have.
Gabby Fry, YVAS director of operations, wants the council to know about the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter's value to Billings.
"We have a lot of knowledge and a lot of a lot of backing from just sheltered best practices on why we as YVAS do things the way that we do," Fry said.
Fry says her group submitted three different proposals for a new contract to the city.
K9 Hope Broker in Shepherd has also submitted a proposal.
"In the previous contract that was part of what we did was we housed by quarantines, we housed court holds, things like that, but more of our community centric programs are like we have like a safety net foster program," Fry said.
That previous contract expired at the end of June.
YVAS says it reached a tentative agreement in July, but the council never voted on it, and now it will at a future meeting.
"The motion was to direct staff to place execution of the month-to-month sheltering agreement with the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on the November 23rd business meeting consent agenda," Councilman Andrew Lindley said at the work session on Monday night.
The city will consider a temporary month-to-month agreement and also look at the proposals.
Councilman Dennis Pittman says part of the challenge is also to rewrite parts of the city code.
He favors a lifetime license and a policy to not pick up pets right away and let them find their way home.
"A cat that gets out will most instinctively return home within 48 hours," Pitman said. "So if we just leave the animal alone and it's safe, then it's probably going to return home. Same thing with dogs."
The council will look at policy changes that will better take care of pets and at proposals.
"Any path forward that does not include a fair and equitable agreement with YVAS is a significant step backward," a YVAS supporter said at the mee4ting.
"Whenever we're talking about people's pets, that's a very, sensitive topic for a lot of people, and it should be," Pitman said.
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