{"id":15976,"date":"2025-10-24T23:28:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T05:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-humane-society-requests-additional-funding-from-city-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:30","slug":"la-plata-county-humane-society-requests-additional-funding-from-city-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-humane-society-requests-additional-funding-from-city-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County Humane Society requests additional funding from city of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County Humane Society is requesting additional funding from the city of Durango for 2026 to fund its various services. It would cost the city about $700,000 annually to independently provide the same services. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Running an animal shelter isn\u2019t cheap, but someone has to do it.<\/p>\n

Julie Dreyfuss, executive director of the La Plata County Humane Society, explained the breadth of services the Humane Society provides \u2013 responsibilities that would fall to the city without the Humane Society\u2019s support \u2013 at a city budget retreat earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The Humane Society, which provides a number of services related to sheltering animals for the city of Durango and La Plata County, is requesting increased funding from the city for next year.<\/p>\n

The city currently contributes $200,000 per year to the Humane Society, which is requesting a total of $359,000 for 2026. La Plata County contributes about $400,000 annually, although Dreyfuss said she expects to receive less funding next year.<\/p>\n

She said the town of Ignacio and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, from which the Humane Society receives about a dozen pets annually, pays for services on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

To make her case, Dreyfuss outlined the services the Humane Society provides and the associated costs. She said the city charter requires the city to have an animal shelter \u2013 it is not an optional feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to imagine your favorite cat, dog or kangaroo \u2013 because we are Durango \u2013 snuggling you during this presentation. I am here to represent those vulnerable cats and dogs and kangaroos in our community today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the Humane Society has operated successfully in La Plata County for 50 years. Ninety-nine percent of adoptions are successful, whereas the successful adoption rate countrywide is 80%.<\/p>\n

The Humane Society is nationally recognized for its low euthanasia rate, and it has won Nonprofit of the Year in the Best of Durango for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

It costs the Humane Society $1.7 million to run the shelter every year. It only earns about $350,000 from shelter services. The city and the county help it pay the difference, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting in the Humane Society is a very good use of taxpayer dollars, and I think it would actually cost more for a municipal shelter for what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Dreyfuss said.<\/p>\n

It would cost the city an estimated $1 million if it were to build its own municipal shelter, she said. The Humane Society\u2019s existing facility is valued at about $3 million. The shelter houses about 150 cats and dogs.<\/p>\n

Dreyfuss said the city likely couldn\u2019t afford $700,000 in expenses plus $1 million to build a shelter, which would mean the city would have to euthanize more pets \u2013 euthanization is typically how municipal shelters manage their pet populations.<\/p>\n

If the city doesn\u2019t fund the Humane Society at a sustainable level, she said, the Humane Society will make it on its own for a time, but eventually, it will run out of savings and its responsibilities will fall upon the city.<\/p>\n

She showed City Council and staff a picture of Amelia, a dog that was starved and abused, lying down. She said the Humane Society spent months giving Amelia food, love and foster care and rehabilitating her to the point she could be adopted. Amelia is now living in a happy home in Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really appreciate all the work the Humane Society\u2019s been doing,\u201d Councilperson Kip Koso said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

services cost about $700,000 annually<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,950,28,475,1351],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-public-finance"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19947,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976\/revisions\/19947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15976"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}