09/15/2026
It has become apparent that many residents simply don't know our situation or our reasoning behind our new Animal Control endeavor. So let me explain..
Since I became chief, 100 percent of the cost of every aspect of animal control has been paid for by the taxpayers of Wolf Point and by the fees we collect when people reclaim their dogs. We have received absolutely nothing from any organization that would help us improve our kennels. When I see post after post about donations and resources going to other organizations, I wonder why our taxpayers pay so much while our animal control and facility have so little. My officers and I were at the pound at 8 p.m. trying to find the cheapest way to keep the dogs from fitting their whole head into their neighbors kennel. In fact, just this past weekend, a smaller dog got its head stuck in one of the gates and had to be cut out, twice. (The dog's fine.) We ultimately bought fencing and are cutting pieces to fit between the kennels but we need a better, more sustainable solution.
Currently:
We have one animal control officer (ACO) that works Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the city has eight dog kennels. We are the only pound on the reservation, so all stray dogs come to us. The facility is in extremely poor condition. I personally would be horrified if my dog was in it.
Under the old system, before I started making some changes:
If a dog was captured in Wolf Point, no matter who it belongs to, or if your dog already had its required vaccinations, your dog was vaccinated. It went straight to the vet 10 minutes after capture while the ACO tried to track down its owner. If the dog was caught during the week and an owner called after 4 p.m., the dog could not be returned until the following day. If a dog was caught on a Friday before 4 p.m., and the owner didn't notice the pup was gone until later, it could not be given back until Monday. Dogs that were picked up remained in the pound for six days unless an owner claimed them and paid the required fees. If an owner couldn't pay, they didn't get their dog back. After six days, the remaining dogs were offered to one local organization. That organization decided which dogs it would take and which it would not, based on a rundown of that dog from our ACO. (Dogs that were chosen may be given back to the owner for a fee that went to the organization or it went up for adoption for a fee that also went to the organization.) According to our ACO, if the dog was a little skittish or did not seem as friendly, it was not taken and those dogs were euthanized.
Questions I had with the old system and some changes/improvements I am making:
Owners have questioned and had concerns, that already vaccinated their dogs..they didn't want them double vaccinated, neither would I. I feel like it's nice for the local organization to offer vaccinations, but only if the owner cannot afford to do so on their own or maybe we don't know who the dog belongs to. The same with neutering animals.
The argument has been that the dogs not picked to go to the local organization are biters, aggressive, or unadoptable. While a few may fall into those categories and may need to be euthanized, many do not. Instead, we should be finding homes for them or working with the people who already own them so they can keep their dogs.
I was told by our ACO that we've had people call or come to our door begging for their dogs back saying they cannot afford to get them out and those dogs still went up for adoption. I never want that to be the case again. We will work with anyone to do what's best for the animal.
I have since changed the old return policy and have given many dogs back to family members. I have been returning them after hours and on weekends. I also feed and check on the dogs several times a day and night, including on weekends. I have worked with a few families that had escape artists for pets, gave them collars, leashes and leads and haven't seen those dogs back in the kennel again. I want our ACO to start doing the same. How can we help vs give us the money or else...
The other organization in Wolf Point has done, and continues to do, great work. However, there are issues that need to be resolved, and the city needs additional options and that's exactly what we're doing.
In my opinion, based on dogs I've interacted with in the pound, many are unfairly labeled as aggressive or unadoptable, and I don't like to think they would be euthanized as a result. I've talked to many surrounding organizations in the area that are prepared to help us accomplish this goal. We're going to push forward and try our best to save some of these animals. I've rescued three of those skittish type dogs and one cat myself and after very little work, they made amazing pets for my family. Although my wife might say the cat was questionable (he had a lot of attitude), but we did have him for 17 years before he passed of old age.
To address a few concerns/comments we've seen:
In terms of how we "used to do things" or what an "organization has done in the past" are not helping us now and I am only interested in the future. That said, I am grateful to anyone that has had a helping hand in the past. I will not speak poorly of any former chief, the practices of the police department, or any other organization. The changes I want to make are about what we are doing now. I will not dwell on the past.
We've seen the comment that our efforts are creating "redundancy at a cost" and no, that's false, we aren't asking anything from the tax payers, nor do we have the money in our current budget to do it ourselves. Our improvements that we desperately need, will "benefit the department and the city and the residents" and will be covered by grant money and donations. We couldn't legally spend that money on a new officer or traffic lights.
Someone has said that what we are doing is counterproductive. But is it productive to keep struggling when those around us are building new facilities and thriving? We pay our Animal Control Officer to catch the animal, then we house and feed it for 6 days, and then that animal is given away. The one agency we were giving them to will receive the fee if the animal is given back to their families, or they receive the adoption fee and we receive nothing. We cannot continue to operate this way, we're the only ones not improving our facility and circumstances.
Someone said "we don't need this, we have..." but the never ending supply of stray dogs and our dilapidated kennel says otherwise.
I also understand people are angry about our name change. I do not want our facility to continue being called the Wolf Point Pound because of the confusion it creates with other organizations. Recently we've been obtaining donations for dog food and other supplies and have also begun applying for grants. The people I have spoken with have expressed confusion about who we are because the name the city has used for decades is similar to that of another organization. Some think they've donated to us, but they haven't.
I also NEVER said I would not work with our local animal organization. They do things we do not do. I said we want more options. I said we would like to adopt some dogs out also. I said we would like to receive some donations and grants. While we ARE disappointed to learn they are contacting fellow organizations and texting falsehoods, we will rise above and not engage, we have too much work to do.
Someone said in the comments, why reinvent the wheel, the wheel is working great. For who?? We don't have a brand new building, we aren't building 10 new kennels and we don't have a brand new van. A couple of years ago, we bought a 10 year old used truck with over 100k miles on it and our kennel is a homemade shack that's in shambles.
Then there was "transition getting off of Facebook and getting on patrol" and while that is irrelevant to the conversation at hand, it isn't the first time this person has regurgitated the same sentiment. Since almost every police department utilizes some form of social media as a highly effective way to communicate in real-time with the community they serve, we didn't feel the need to explain that, but here we are..
I'm not sure what the future looks like with the way we've seen some act in response to our efforts. And seriously, if it is really just about the dogs, why are certain people so angry?
In conclusion:
This is not about numbers or data. It is about how we do things and ultimately about how we make things better. We cannot go one city block without seeing a dog or dogs running unattended. Something is wrong. The problem is not getting better; people are just normalizing it.
There is so much misinformation being spread around and we really wish people wouldn't be so quick to make assumptions or listen to hearsay. Believe it or not, there are people out there that don't approve of me being here. They don't approve of me making a single change, even if it's for the better, simply because it's me doing it. This is not a new scenario for anyone in the police world, but I urge those to simply ask questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
We will improve our current situation. We are going to make the necessary repairs to our kennels all by the new grant money we are and will be receiving. We will still work with this other organization in town but they won't be the only ones we are working with as we've already made quite a few connections that are more than happy and willing to help us out of our dilemma. And, yes, we're excited that we have a new name that will help us receive grants and give our dogs a safer place to call home while we try and get them safely back to theirs or find them a new one, should they unfortunately need it. We knew some feathers would be ruffled but we need to put the dogs (and yes, cats) first in Wolf Point.
