07/21/2026
Sharing this here because it’s important the community be informed on these kinds of decisions.
If you know me, you know I am a fierce animal advocate. I have been involved in animal rescue for almost a decade. But you may also know that I was a Military Police Officer and I also believe in ensuring our Police are funded appropriately but not overfunded (ie not everything is a police matter and we need to make sure resources are where they will be most useful for responding to the communities needs).
This was a bandaid decision to try and get a quick fix to a retention problem within our Sheriff’s office. As leaders in our community we need to work on more permanent funding solutions. I don’t want to pretend to have all the answers but I also don’t want to pretend that this isn’t indicative of a much larger problem that needs to be taken very seriously. Not only do we need to consider how we are going to support our shelter with this massive budget cut but also consider that we need a sustainable budget plan for supporting our Sheriffs office longterm as well (keep in mind raises etc often need to happen annually to stay competitive, not to mention providing quality training, maintenance, equipment etc). Public safety is incredibly important and it’s also important to recognize that the shelter is also a part of that (getting dogs off the streets, rabies vaccines, owner surrenders all contribute to public safety and wellbeing).
I encourage everyone to reach out to their representatives and hear their plan for a more sustainable budget and what we as a community can do to better support the shelter through this.
