WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) -- The impounded cat contract is done. The Wausau City Council unanimously passed the contract with the Humane Society of Marathon County to handle stray cats brought by police or the Animal Control Officer to the shelter.
One alderperson that’s glad to wrap up this issue is Council President Lisa Rasmussen. “Finally. I’m excited that we were able to find a middle ground between our needs and the needs of the humane society in terms of dealing with cats, and cost. Cost was our primary reason for denying the initial contacts, so we were able to meet in the middle and find a way that we can track our expenses and our volume of animals taken in, and that we can accurate statistics going forward with future contracts.”
Under the new plan, the Humane Society will take 150 of the city's stray cats at a cost of $32,400. That comes to around $200 each. If the city has to have more cats turned over, that cost will go up per cat. Everest Metro officials will be signing up under the contract as well, and will be paying for about $5,500 of the contract's full price.
There was some discussion about how to figure out the cost to Wausau versus the cost to the Everest Metro Police district. Rasmussen says now that they can track where each stray comes from, that won’t be a problem. “There is a matrix by which we’ll figure out how to split that cost between ourselves and Everest Metro that’s already established, so the framework is there, so we’ll get that worked out with them. We have a separate contract with them to provide service which is not the same as the contract we just executed with the humane society.”
The contract does not handle feral cats or cats brought to the shelter by residents.
Rib Mountain, Rothschild and Kronenwetter already have contracts in place for cat services.