A recent decision to transition the Western Arizona Humane Society (WAHS)-managed Kingman animal shelter to an in-house Mohave county operation will be revisited during Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The reconsideration is prompted by new input from WAHS, which previously indicated it did not wish to continue running the shelter once its contract expires at the end of this month.
WAHS Executive Director Patty Gilmore sent Board Chairman Hildy Angius and county manager Mike Hendrix a June 10 email indicating that the organization is interested in continuing to oversee the shelter, provided certain conditions are met. Gilmore noted that WAHS has incurred annual losses ranging from $47,000 to more than $74,000 in each of the last four years.
Gilmore requested that the $260,000 current contract be increased to $350,000 to protect the organization from further operations losses. WAHS is also asking to be paid monthly rather than quarterly and that the county agrees to increase compensation by 2% each year going forward.
“One of my reasons for recommending this reversal on renewing the Mohave County contract is we care about the animals in all of Mohave County,” Gilmore’s email stated. “We believe if WAHS does not renew this contract, the live release rate will drop drastically for the animals in our county and we would hate to see such a bloodbath.”
Separate proposals by supervisors Jean Bishop and Buster Johnson regarding possible construction and location of a new animal shelter are also scheduled for discussing during Monday’s Board meeting in Kingman.
