Shelter offers deals on dog adoption
<p><strong>Animal Control</strong> Officer Niki Sevesind on Tuesday picks up a dog rescued from an Evergreen home on Monday. Saying she always had an affinity for “weiner dogs,” Sevesind stopped by the Flathead County Animal Shelter while making her rounds to see how the dogs were doing. The 15 dogs taken from the home after a small fire are not currently available for adoption. However, because of the influx of rescued dogs, the Flathead County Animal Shelter is waiving the adoption fee on dogs that have been at the shelter the longest and need good homes. (Brenda…
A day after 15 dogs were removed from an Evergreen mobile home that had scores of animals ranging from exotic birds to rabbits, The Flathead County Animal Shelter is working to free up space by waiving adoption fees for six dogs.
A small house fire on Kings Way on Monday morning revealed a collection of dozens of exotic birds, an unknown amount of rabbits, several lizards and the 15 dogs now living in the animal shelter.
Flathead County Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Stahlberg said while it was a case of animal hoarding, he was unsure how many animals would be removed from the owner’s custody. He said until the county determined what to do next, several volunteer organizations were working together to find temporary shelter for the unique collection of animals.
Cliff Bennett, the director of the Flathead County Animal Shelter, said that limbo phase means the 15 dogs relocated to the shelter are unadoptable. He said the shelter reaches capacity at 54 dogs. With addition of the new dogs, the organization is just a few dogs below that mark.
As a result, Bennett said the shelter is waiving adoption fees for the six dogs that have been in the shelter the longest.
“You never know what’s going to happen — nothing says there’s not going to be another such case in a week, or tomorrow,” Bennett said. “I’ve seen days where we’ve picked up 15 dogs from 15 different locations — we constantly walk a tightrope.”
He said dogs typically are at the shelter for a month before being adopted. But the six dogs he’s focused on have been there since June. He said the dogs are between 4 and 5 years old. Adoption fees for a middle-age dog at the shelter typically are $75.
“They’re just nice dogs who have been there a while,” Bennett said. “They’re spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated and they come with a bag of food — its a good deal.”
Bennett said the county shelter only takes cats and dogs, so he wasn’t sure what happened to the more than 100 animals Flathead County Animal Control found when it responded to the scene Monday morning.
Wayne Evert of Evergreen Fire Rescue volunteered to temporarily take responsibility for the dozens of exotic birds found after he and his crew helped put out the house fire.
He said as of Tuesday evening, he had counted 60 birds.
“There’s definitely more than that, but we’re still in the process of cleaning them up, assessing their health and cleaning cages,” Evert said. “Yesterday was just crazy. We’ll figure out the next steps soon, but for now, we’re just focused on taking care of them.”
Evert said the birds won’t be up for adoption until their basic needs are met.
He said as far as he knew, the lizards and geckos were taken by family members and several local animal shops.
“We’ve been lucky with the volunteers who have showed up, but we don’t need any more right now because we don’t want to stress out the animals with too many people,” he said. “At some point, we’re going to need a lot of homes for these birds and probably other animals, but we’re not there yet.”
The animal shelter is located at 225 Cemetery Road. For more information, go to https://flathead.mt.gov/animal or call (406) 752-1310.
Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.