The State of Animal Services & Safety in Davenport

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As part of our contracts, we are required to take in every stray animal, sick and injured wildlife, enforce bite quarantines, investigate animal cruelty and neglect, and much more. We care for over 3,000 animals each year! Each animal requires medical care, feeding, and behavior evaluation – not to mention attention, walks, enrichment, and eventually adoption services.

We believe in high-quality care and strive to provide the best services possible - it's what the animals and our community deserve.

We work hard to ensure we are operating as efficiently as possible - both because it is good stewardship of funds, and because we have no other choice!

The only way to significantly cut costs would be to deny appropriate medical care to animals and reduce staffing for animal care. Both would severely negatively impact the quality of care we provide, which would lead to an even more over-capacity shelter and even more increased costs.

The only other alternative to drastically reduce costs would be to euthanize each animal once its stray hold period (7 days) is over. This would be contrary to our values and our mission. We refuse to do this. Every animal deserves a chance.

We are what is called an “open intake” shelter, meaning we don’t have a choice to accept an animal. Most of our local shelters and rescues are “closed intake” or “limited intake”, which means they can choose not to accept an animal for behavior, medical, or capacity reasons. Both "open intake" and "closed intake" shelters and rescues play a vital role in animal care in a community!

We perform euthanasia only under very specific circumstances: 1. The level of medical care the animal requires is extreme or unlikely to produce positive results, or 2. The animal is a significant danger to the public or other animals.

Currently, no other organization exists in our community with the capacity or desire to provide these services.

Citizens would have no place to take lost, injured, ill, or aggressive animals unless city and county governments duplicated all of these services from scratch, generating severely increased costs in the government's budget. Likewise, enforcement activities supported by HSSC's officers (such as ordinance enforcement and investigation of animal cruelty) would not be provided.

We raise hundreds of thousands a year as a nonprofit organization in order to provide lifesaving care and innovative programs. Our donors and supporters are absolutely amazing, and we could never thank them enough for all they make possible here. They help us go above and beyond!

However: Our generous supporters and donors should not subsidize the costs of city services. This would be like telling citizens that they are responsible for funding their local police department through private donations if they want that public safety service. 

HSSC wants to continue helping animals in need in Davenport and our surrounding communities. However, these services are not sustainable without appropriate payment. 

Per capita costs for animal services:

National average: $9.71* per citizen, per year

Davenport per capita: $4.02 per citizen, per year

                         *Best Friend's Animal Society, nationwide study

Current cost to provide services to Davenport: $1,388,445

Current contract fee: $402,000

Davenport’s Annual Budget: $242,534,492

Current percentage of Davenport’s budget: .17%
Asking percentage of Davenport’s budget: .57%

Less than 1% of Davenport’s annual budget is needed to properly pay for the services we provide on their behalf. 

While many other comparable cities in Iowa and Illinois spend less per year on animal control services that the national average, many of those cities also build and/or maintain animal care facilities.

HSSC's facility is owned and maintained by HSSC. All utility costs are paid for by HSSC as well. Upkeep and

repairs to the building and equipment inside are costly, especially due to heavy usage from 3,000+

animals served annually due to HSSC's contract service obligations.

HSSC's facility is approximately half of the recommended size for animal intake volumes. HSSC's facility is

8,480 sq ft and located on 1 acre of land. A professional consulting company indicated HSSC's facility should

range from 16,000 to 20,000 sq ft with a minimum of 3 acres of land.

Many years of under-funded services have led to HSSC lacking the funds to invest in a proper facility. Thanks to inadequate funding of animal control services, the facility drives costs higher:

• Animal Housing: With limited space and out-of-date kennels, cleaning time is vastly multiplied. This leads to higher staffing costs. In addition, the kennels and facility are not designed with animal behavior or psychology in mind. This leads to a shelter experience more likely to cause animals to develop anxiety, stress, and other behavioral issues. As a result, they are less attractive candidates for adoption and spend much longer in the shelter (again driving up costs).
• Safety: HSSC is often required to house and care for dangerous animals. Due to the kennels and layout of our facility, we have no way to handle animals that is in line with the recommendations of the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians. This can cause unsafe situations for our staff and the animals.
• Overall Space Constraints: The number of animal intakes has drastically increased in recent years. Our facility is not adequately sized to house the 3,000+ animals we care for each year.

Correct compensation is necessary for our continued service to our communities. It is even more important when considering that our organization must make long-term plans for a larger facility (which is currently impossible with severely under-funded services).