King County Council to let area vets help animal shelters

Area veterinarians who have offered their services for free to help ease the crisis in King County's two animal shelters will be able to start helping on Tuesday.

That's after the King County Council on Monday approved a motion clearing the way for the shelters to cooperate with the private veterinarians. The motion also calls for an aggressive animal adoption campaign.

County Executive Ron Sims has issued an emergency declaration to streamline the measures.

The actions follow three recent critical reports on shelter operations. The most recent, by a team of veterinarians from the University of California-Davis, found that the shelters' veterinarian, vet techs and other staffers' workload is too high for them to adequately care for the animals. The report also found housing for the animals was inadequate and creates stressful conditions.

The county shelters house about 13,000 animals each year.

Sims and council leaders have announced plans to spend nearly $1 million this year to upgrade the main shelter in Kent and increase staff and form an interagency task force to recommend longer-term improvements.

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/