BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Addressing the City of Buffalo's animal shelter took center stage at a Buffalo Common Council Committee meeting Tuesday.
"This is about a plan forward there's no 'I gotchas here,'" Fillmore District Council member Mitch Nowakowski said.
Nowakowski toured the facility earlier this month. That tour prompted him to write a resolution stating that "the shelter's facilities are decrepit, with dogs confined to cages for extended periods...without regular outdoor breaks."
An anonymous letter to the 7 News I-Team, sparked an investigation into the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter earlier this month. You can read our previous report here.
We were informed on Tuesday that 10 dogs from the shelter were transferred to the Niagara SPCA. You can watch an update from the I-Team's Ed Drantch below.
"And we know that when shelters are overcrowded, sanitation can take a back seat," Nowakowski said.
The shelter is overseen by the Department of Public Works, which is why Nowakowski asked DPW Commissioner Nate Marton to talk about where the city goes from here.
"I'm grateful that we took a tour together and grateful that we look at a multifaceted approach to this change," Nowakowski said.
"As we think about what the shelter is now and what it will need to be there certainly needs to be an open discussion about what it is is required to be larger and a more expensive operation ultimately," Marton said.
Marton acknowledged the 7400-square-foot building has been outdated so for the past year and a half. He said there have been discussions about selling the current facility and finding a new one.
"So our facility, we know is an aging facility and smaller than it really should be, and certainly not large enough to meet the new needs with the amount of animals and volumes that we go through in the city," Marton said.
"I think that that's where, you know, people can see a sigh of relief, because I'm not going to allow this to get swept under the rug. My colleagues are not. Everyone's acknowledged on record that it's been overlooked for far too long," Nowakowski said.
Marton said next year animal shelters will need to follow new state regulations like proper spacing for animals and how they're transported.
"The new shelter even though it'll be larger, there is a lot more space that you have required to reach in. So the number of animals that we're going to be able to house might not be significantly greater, even though the size is greater, but again, we've got to meet those care standards," he said.
Marton wouldn't say exactly where the new facility would be or what the price tag would be because the city is still in the early stages of putting together a plan.
Me: Are you hopeful that with this new facility, that the conditions will look a lot better there, and it'll be more sufficient for those animals?
Marton: Yeah, certainly the conditions in a new facility will be a brand new, newer element. So they're always going to look better. The key is to maintain it.
