After a bumpy year of handling stray dogs and cats on its own, the Town of Montgomery reestablished its animal shelter agreement with the Humane Society of Walden as of January 1. Per the agreement terms, the town’s animal control office will send healthy, non-aggressive dogs to the shelter, and the town will pay an intake fee per animal instead of a quarterly service cost.

For 50 years, the Humane Society of Walden has helped thousands of abandoned and mistreated animals find forever homes; the nonprofit shelter found homes for 500 animals in the last year alone. The HSW is not the Town of Montgomery’s animal shelter but rather an independent organization comprising its own board, staff, and volunteers, completely funded by donations and fundraisers. For years, the town has maintained contracts with the HSW and formerly paid quarterly service costs, allowing the town’s ACO to send stray dogs and occasionally cats to the shelter.

This partnership was temporarily interrupted in 2024 after the previous, five-year contract expired on December 31, 2023. Neither the town nor the HSW were happy with the previous contract, and both parties considered switching to a one-year contract. Tracy Wilson, president of the HWS, stated that her shelter reached out to the town several times throughout 2024 to discuss a new agreement, but the town declined a contract for that year as of September 4. She noted that the town sent the HSW $13,600 during the first quarter of 2024, despite not having a contract with the shelter.

“We met with the police chief, lieutenant, ACO, and supervisor multiple times in 2024. The chief suggested that they were going to convert a town building to hold dogs themselves,” Wilson said. “We invited him to the shelter to show him what type of kennel and setups he should do if he chose that route. After, I was told by the lieutenant that the town board voted no to a contract. That was left at that on our end.”

“We received $13,600 from the first quarter of 2024 from the town, which was not part of a contract,” she added. “That was in the hopes of having continuity of some type of contract, as per the town supervisor.”

Montgomery Police Chief John Hank, during the town’s November 14 meeting, asserted that he and the town board were dissatisfied with the previous contract and the money they were paying to the shelter, as they felt the agreement limited the number of strays they could send. The solution was to implement an intake fee, as the town would only pay for strays that the shelter accepts and could put the savings toward improving its animal services.

“What we’re going to do in the future with the Humane Society is what every other municipality that has contracted them does: when they take an animal, we’ll pay the intake fee that they charge to take the animal in,” Hank said on November 14.

Ingrid Anne Ilkiw, the town’s animal control officer, mentioned that the HSW gradually stopped accepting stray dogs that the staff considered too aggressive or problematic to handle, restricting what animals the town could send. Wilson explained that this change was necessary as the shelter does not have the space or resources to adequately care for aggressive dogs. The HSW has a much harder time finding homes for these animals, leading them to become long-term or even permanent residents of the shelter. This in turn puts a major strain on the dogs in question, limits kennels, and creates safety risks for the shelter’s staff, volunteers, and non-aggressive animals.

“Being no-kill and a facility, unfortunately, we are limited on space. Believe us, we’d love to help every pet needing placement. But we do not have an onsite vet or behaviorist, and that’s the main reason we have limitations on what pets we can accept,” Wilson said on January 5. “If a dog is presenting aggression at intake, how can we safely handle the dog in an emergency? Provide daily enrichment? And what is the outcome of that intake? We cannot safely adopt a dog showing aggression. And is it humane to keep a dog long-term in a kennel? Not only is that deteriorating for some dogs but it fills up our kennels, making it challenging to take in others.”

“An example is Travis who was taken in by the Montgomery ACO 594 days ago. He has a bite history, he’s got a lot of quirks, and unfortunately, he’s a candidate for having HSW be his home for life,” she continued. “We’re fine with Travis but knowing how his life is destined to be a long-timer here, we have to make considerable changes to our intake procedures for future dogs. Aggressive dogs are no longer accepted; it’s unfair to the dog, our staff, the public, and other dogs waiting to come in that may have a shorter stay.”

Throughout 2024, the town’s animal control office and police department handled any strays they found, with additional help from other local shelters and rescue farms. This proved challenging for both departments and required a lot of improvising, but became more manageable once the town established a small kennel space for dogs in October.

“In the past couple of months, we’ve installed a kennel here at the town hall. Over the next week or so, we’re going to be running electricity to it so that it has heat for the winter,” Hank said on November 14. “That gives us a place to put the animals when we are looking for their owners. We’ve taken in four dogs so far today, we’re locating the owners of two of them, and we’ve located the owners of the other two. That is how we’re addressing the issue with the dogs.”

One of the town’s most challenging animal situations from last year involved an abandoned property in Maybrook that housed 20 cats living in poor conditions. Since the owner passed away, the cats’ well-being fell into the town’s hands, and both the ACO and police department spent months working with different shelters and rescue farms to find every cat a new home.

“It was a nightmare, me and my partner were the first people to go in that house for years. And what we saw was horrible; there was feces everywhere, cats were living and dying in such incredible filth, and you couldn’t breathe the air. My partner had become a little ill from it,” Ilkiw said on October 3. “We did a walkthrough of the house, we got all the cats out, and we took them to Flannery’s. We went all over looking for other rescues and shelters.”

“We spent over $15,000 in veterinary bills just to make these cats healthy enough to even put them into any shelter,” Hank said on November 14. “Our animal control contacted no less than 60 shelters across five states to try to find homes for these 20 cats, just to give you an idea of the extreme difficulty in even finding places to put these animals. Shelters everywhere are full, they’re not accepting animals, and they’re especially not accepting cats.”

At the start of 2025, the town board and HSW signed a new contract and are working together once more. Aside from the intake fee, this agreement only covers dogs, and the shelter will not accept dogs that display aggressive or problematic behavior, require immediate medical attention, or are involved in cruelty cases. Any animal that violates these terms will be the town’s responsibility.

Hank also confirmed last Monday that the town would continue with other shelters and organizations besides the HSW. This will help the town find homes for animals that the HSW does not cover in the contract, such as cats and aggressive animals.