Humane help: City comes to animal shelter’s rescue

HARLINGEN — The city is helping the Harlingen Humane Society pull out of its deepest budget crunch.

Yesterday, City Manager Dan Serna agreed to give the humane society an immediate, one-time payment of $25,000 while making plans to boost the city’s annual contribution by $29,000.

“This is a huge weight off our shoulders,” humane society President Pat Turman-White said after meeting with Serna late yesterday afternoon. “The city really wants to help us. They appreciate what we do.”

Serna said he wanted to review the organization’s budget.

“We’re going to take a look at their operation and their overall budget and programs and look at where they are to see if we can work out a sustainable system and (consider) any additional funding they may need,” Serna said before the meeting.

Earlier this month, city commissioners approved a $25,000 payment to help the humane society through the end of the fiscal year, which closes in September.

But Turman-White said the money has not arrived.

Now, the $25,000 infusion will help rebuild the organization’s cash reserves, she said.

“It’s going to go into our reserve fund to help us in between donations — because we never know when they’re going to happen,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city agreed to boost its annual contribution from $131,505 to $160,500 starting next fiscal year, she said.

About two weeks ago, Turman-White announced the humane society was “broke” — out of cash reserves.

Ever since, an outpouring of community support has pumped $32,402 in the organization’s coffers, she said.

“With the city’s money and the fundraisers, that’s going to give us a lot of breathing room to last us till the end of the year,” Turman-White said.

The financial crisis has led the humane society to cut back on key programs such as spay and neutering services.

Turman-White said an estimated 50 percent of the humane society’s subsidized spay and neutering services are performed on dogs and cats from outside Harlingen.

But neighboring cities have refused to help share costs.

Now, the humane society cannot afford to continue to subsidize costs for residents outside Harlingen, she said.

So the organization has been forced to increase costs of spay and neutering services for dogs and cats from outside Harlingen, Turman-White said.

The program offering subsidized spay and neutering services has dramatically slashed the number of stray dogs and cats euthanized at the shelter.

In 2007, the humane society euthanized 8,100 dogs and cats.

Last year, that number dropped to 5,041.