Borough Looks for Solutions to Large Animal Control

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT

A few weeks ago the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly approved a long awaited contract for animal control along the borough road system. The service will be shared with the city, so the contract needs to be approved by the City Council.
Borough Manager Bud Cassidy said the contract really only deals with small animals, like dogs and cats, that can be taken to the Animal Shelter. He said there are a lot of larger animals on the island, like horses, and he’s been working on trying to figure out where those animals could be kept.
“It’s the borough’s responsibility to find a place and I’ve been talking with both folks down at the rodeo grounds, as well as the Baptist Mission in having a location to take a horse, you know, if need be.”
Cassidy said animal control is actually more about working with pet owners, and not so much about taking animals into custody.

“You know the animal control is really an effort for us to work with folks, you know either a barking dog or a horse that may be sick, to maybe educate them about what needs to be done. But of course if it get’s real bad we obviously are going to have to confiscate the animal. But it’s private property so we’d do it in a legal means.”
Cassidy said he couldn’t put a number on how many large animal control calls the borough gets, but said it definitely isn’t as common as small animal complaints. He said caring for confiscated larger animals is a bit more complicated, and that’s why all the details of how the borough will go about doing so haven’t been worked out.
“Some folks are willing to help us, but there’s also the cost of feed, and all this is short term. And we’ve also talked to the veterinarian as well, there’s a large animal vet here in town that I’ve talked with a bit about what would be required if there needs to be a vaccination or if in fact these animals are very sick, how we would handle that. Those types of loose ends we do need to be tightened up.”
He said each case would be different, but some of those costs could fall on the borough. He said he has also talked to an equine group on the mainland about helping with the cost of some feed if need be, but nothing is set in stone.
As for smaller animals, he said he expects the city to approve the contract and animal control service to return to the borough sometime in November.