Marie McDaniel pets a dog at the Cleveland Animal Shelter. Cleveland City leaders voted on whether to close the city shelter and have its animal control officers deliver animals to SCPA of Bradley County, the private organization that handles animal shelter services for the county.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Cleveland City Council is considering closing the doors of the municipal animal shelter and relying on a private shelter that Bradley County began using in March.
On Monday, City Councilman Richard Banks presented a resolution that calls for the closure of the city shelter by an unspecified date as a way “to maximize the use of municipal resources and to avoid duplication of services” already being provided by the county through its $80,000 agreement with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Bradley County.
The proposal would entail keeping animal control officers on city streets and having them drop off animals at the SPCA shelter.
“It would make more sense for those officers to bring the animals … to the new facility,” Banks said.
SPCA officials would “love” to do that, but it would require some contract negotiation, SPCA President Betti Gravelle said.