City Council approves changes to animal care in Cheyenne

Jan. 23—CHEYENNE — After about two years of work with the Cheyenne Animal Shelter, the City Council implemented changes to its municipal code regarding the registration, control, impoundment and general care of animals and birds within city limits on Monday.

"I think that it's a really good step forward," said Britney Tennant, CEO of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter. "I think that these amendments and revisions were long overdue."

The changes to Title VI of Cheyenne's municipal code outlined in a 26-page document largely clarify language, but also make a few key policy changes.

Tennant said the shelter is celebrating some of the changes related to the community cat program. This program allows community members to trap free-roaming cats, have them neutered and vaccinated for rabies, have their ears tipped and return them to the original trapping location in a process called trap-neuter-return.

Tennant said this is the only method in place to help control free-roaming cat populations.

Community cat caregivers are any person who provides food, shelter or medical care to a community cat, but is not considered the owner, and community cats may have multiple caregivers.

"Clarifying some of the language and the practices around that, and making sure that people who are taking care of community cats aren't penalized as owners of free-roaming cats," Tennant said, "that's really helpful in helping us advance that programming."

Changes to the code include clarifications that caregivers can only feed the cat on their property or public property, which makes a distinction between community cats and strays, and protects the caregiver from code violations for returning a community to its original location during trap-neuter-return.

Another significant policy change, Tennant said, is language adjustments regarding stray hold times and identifying owners.

Any animal impounded at the shelter whose owner is unidentified and is not claimed within three calendar days will become property of the shelter, which is unchanged from how it was previously. However, kittens less than eight weeks old in the animal shelter's custody will be deemed abandoned and property of the shelter.

Cheyenne Animal Shelter takes in between 800 and 1,000 kittens in this age range every year, and they are seldom reclaimed by owners, according to Tennant.

"Not having to hold those kittens for additional days when we know that nobody's coming for them is actually really helpful in our ability to move them through our process faster and get them placed into foster homes faster," she said.

Emilee Intlekofer, executive director of Black Dog Animal Rescue, also expressed support for the code changes passed after a third and final reading at Monday's City Council meeting.

"We appreciate the thoughtful collaboration between the city and the Cheyenne Animal Shelter and the time they each spent on this ordinance," she said. "We are happy with the outcome."

Cheyenne Animal Shelter officials said they are satisfied with the changes, after some language negotiations during the past few council meetings.

"I'm just glad that the community cares so much about its pets, because we do this kind of work on the policy to make sure that we're aligning policy to reflect the value that people have with their animals," Tennant said. "And we know that animals mean a lot to everybody in this community, and that's what gives us the drive and the motivation to tackle big, multi-year projects like this."

While Tennant said the animal shelter will continue fighting for progressive policy changes supporting animal owners in the community, she doesn't foresee any necessary changes coming soon.

Cheyenne Animal Shelter also announced Wednesday that it received a $20,000 grant for the implementation of its Business Partnership Program. The community-wide initiative aims to boost the number of pet-friendly businesses and promote pet-inclusive housing within the region.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.