Animal Control Officer’s John Bivens, left, and Heath Gladson prepare for the 5 p.m. feeding at the Cleveland Animal Control shelter Thursday.Animals’ lives are being saved in the Cleveland, Tenn., Animal Shelter, but the local grass-roots activist group Cleveland for a No Kill City claims that new policy still needs to be set in place.
The group is requesting that the Cleveland City Council adopt a “no kill” operational policy similar to one passed in East Ridge this January.
“Our hope is that this [no kill policy] gets passed, but that is up to the City Council and the city manager and I am not sure what the holdup is,” said Paul Smith, director of the Cleveland Animal Shelter.
In July 2012, the City Council implemented policy that allowed the shelter to keep animals for 72 hours before euthanizing them, which gives the group more time to find them homes.
“There is no reason to pass anything else as what we are doing is working,” said Melinda Carroll, Cleveland’s assistant city manager.