Parkview extends animal shelter offer to Jasper County

The board of supervisors on Tuesday needed more information and a formal contract before accepting a Newton veterinary clinic’s proposal to house lost dogs or sick cats found by Jasper County’s animal control staff. Next week, supervisors will revisit the proposal and put the matter to a vote.

Parkview Animal Hospital, which has been temporarily sheltering animals for the City of Newton since late 2020, said in its proposal that it would provide food, water, emergency care and up to seven days of safe, climate-controlled housing for stray dogs and injured/sick cats.

If the county agrees to the proposal, only authorized personnel would be given after-hours access to the kennels, of which only one will be dedicated to the county on a daily basis. Staff at Parkview will also handle reclaim paperwork and administer necessary vaccinations as required.

Per the proposal, the county would be billed at rate of $20 per kennel per day, or $7,300 per year. Parkview would bill the county about $608 per month. Additional costs could be administered if the county houses more than one animal at a time.

Compared to the city’s $1,216 monthly fee, the county would be paying half as much, likely due to the smaller volume of strays picked up outside city limits.

Even when the Newton City Council was deliberating its decision to have Parkview as its temporary shelter provider, Jasper County Director of Environmental Health and Community Development Kevin Leutters said approximately 80 percent of the stray dogs in the county come from Newton.

Since the city agreed to use Parkview, Leutters says the county — which has stopped picking up stray animals in Newton — has had about two to four dogs per month. It’s been awhile since the county had two dogs at once. Jasper County will still be in charge of transporting animals.

Leutters told the board of supervisors about $15,000 would be budgeted for these expenses.

Terri McKinney, clinic manager at Parkview, confirmed the proposal to Jasper County matches the agreement made with the city November. Dogs would be held in the kennel for one week before the county transfers the animal to a place like the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

Similarly to Parkview’s agreement with the city, the public will be notified on social media when a lost pet has been found in the county and housed in one of the veterinary clinic’s eight kennels.

Ever since Parkview was established as Newton’s temporary shelter, the clinic has consistently posted on Facebook whenever an animal has been dropped off by the Newton Police Department’s community services officer, who is the only person permitted to do so. This means no public drop-offs.

The dissolution of the Jasper County Animal Rescue League last year puts Parkview “in a little bit of a bind,” McKinney said, because there was no other agency to take its place. Parkview has picked up those services for the community’s sake, but it is only a temporary fix.

“There clearly is a need for a bigger-than-we-are type of organization. We’re put in place to just help out. It came as a shock to the community that we lost JCARL. If we’re in a position where we can help for now and see what the long-term brings us, then that’s what we’re attempting to do,” McKinney said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com