Without Cash, Northwest Wyoming's Only Animal Shelter Could Close In Months

The Park County Animal Shelter is one of the only places for stray and neglected pets in northwest Wyoming. Unless the cash-strapped facility can get an infusion of donations, it could close before the end of the year.

While the dogs, cats and kittens at shelter’s newest facility that opened in 2021 are getting the best quality care, costs have increased while donations have decreased. The situation is dire and only getting more urgent as the year progresses.

"If we don't get more community support, our doors could be closed in the next four months," said Executive Director Jona Harris. "This is urgent."

Cuts And Losses

The Park County Animal Shelter takes in, cares for and adopts out animals from across the Bighorn Basin. The nonprofit shelter is based in Cody, but Harris said it serves Wyoming and Montana communities within a 100-mile radius.

"We have people from Billings, Montana, that visit to look at our animals and adopt from us," she said. "We get animals from Worland and Lovell. It's not just Cody and Park County. It's the entire Bighorn Basin."

The shelter opened its main facility along U.S. Highway 14 in March 2021, not far from Yellowstone Regional Airport. It's stayed busy since then, taking in more than 800 animals in 2023.

"We currently have eight dogs, 30 adult cats and 25 kittens," Harris said. "That's a very comfortable population where our skeleton crew can handle the animals, but it does affect the number of animals we can intake."

Harris's skeleton crew consists of herself and three other full-time staff members. She recently had to eliminate five paid positions at the shelter, which she said was "difficult but necessary" given the non-profit's current financial status.

Donations And Inflation

In 2024, operational costs at the shelter have increased while donations have decreased. Since the shelter primarily operates on small contributions, losing donors means losing critical funds for salaries, utilities and supplies.

Harris believes the drop in donations is a local consequence of the inflation impacting many American homes and families. Big donations are available and appreciated, but the lifeblood of the shelter has always been the small and medium donations between $5 and $100 from community members.

"I have no problem going out and getting grants for bigger projects," she said. "Donors like to see where their money is going, and we have donors that want to contribute to bigger projects for the shelter. But getting small and medium donations from community members is harder. Operations is just kind of boring, for lack of a better word."

Harris said the shelter's monthly budget to maintain its current staff and pay for food, medical costs and cleaning supplies needed to keep the animals healthy is around $36,000, or around $432,000 a year. Historically, most of the budget has been covered by small and medium donations, which have precipitously dropped in recent months.

It's more than just money. Harris said in-kind donations of essentials like pet food, cat litter and other small items that assist in the shelter's day-to-day operations have also declined.

"We do get in-kind donations, and they're fabulous," she said. "They help us out a lot. But we have seen a decrease in in-kind and smaller financial donations."

City And County Support

Since the Park County Animal Shelter is a private non-profit, it doesn't benefit from the patronage of the City of Cody or Park County. Harris said there has been support from the city and the county in the past, but it's been more difficult to acquire over the last few years.

"We have contracts with the city of Cody, where we intake animals for the city, and they give us $4,100 a month," she said. "But one out of three of our animals come from Park County, and we are currently getting no support from the county commissioners."

The Park County Commissioners used to allocate $10,000 to the shelter every year. However, Harris said the commissioners have decided against that allocation for the last two years.

Harris continues to advocate for the shelter's annual allocation with the Park County Commissioners and said she's optimistic it may be restored before the end of the year. That amount would cover less than a third of the shelter's county-related costs, but it would help stabilize the shelter’s financial outlook.

Whatever It Takes

Even with financial support from the city of Cody and Park County, Harris said the solution to the Park County Animal Shelter's financial stress is attracting more small and medium donations from the community it serves, which extends far beyond the city and county.

"I think that when people look at this beautiful facility, and all of the wonderful things that have happened, they think that we're doing okay," she said. "But our operational budget just is not doing."

With a small staff and a constant influx of animals, Harris has had to split her time and attention as executive director. Between networking and conversations with donors to keep the shelter open, she's been assisting with the day-to-day operations and care of the animals at the shelter.

"We're the first responders for these animals," she said. "I'm at the shelter cleaning, ensuring that the animals are tended to and that their quality of life is good. Luckily, I have a committed staff who understands our mission and purpose. But as executive director, I need to be out in the community trying to get money, which makes it a little tricky and hard to sustain."

Harris's immediate objective is to maintain "the bare minimum," securing enough money to retain the shelter's current staff while getting all the essential supplies to care for the animals. She'd eventually like to restore the eliminated positions, allowing more animals to be taken in, but future staffing and capacity is contingent on funding.

Harris hopes some donors who have expressed interest in "big-ticket items" and donating toward larger projects at the shelter like expansions or better equipment will recognize the urgency of the shelter's current plight and pivot toward sending donations for mundane but essential operational expenses.

"We just got an anonymous donor to pay $75,000 for canine grass," she said, "so our dogs didn't have to be outside in the mud in the rocks and bringing dirt into the facility, which takes a lot of manpower to clean. I had no problem getting $75,000 because they saw the value in that project. But as far as the operational money, that's what we really need right now from our community donors."

Communities Coming Together

Despite the urgency, Harris is confident that community support will increase once people understand why small and medium donations are so essential to the Park County Animal Shelter.

"Right now, we currently have 54 monthly donors, which averages out to be about $24,000 a month," she said. "And I would love to see 360 people donating $100 a month. That would pay for our budget. Monthly donations, even $5 a month, are so impactful. It all intertwines together."

As a lifelong Cody resident, she knows how Cody can come together for a cause they believe in. She hopes the individuals and communities throughout the region that benefit from the Park County Animal Shelter will recognize its importance and decide to give a small amount that ultimately amounts to enough to keep the doors open and fulfill the mission.

"At the end of the day, it's about the animals," she said. "I know that our community can come together. But we need some big donors to step up, and we need small and medium donors because they are so impactful in the sustainability of our operations."

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.