With this new agreement, the town officials are hoping to cut some costs for the budget.

Town Supervisor Rob Smith gave the initial push to try to get the agreement set up. Smith stated that, for many years, the town has relied on a service in the town of Gerry that had increased costs about a year ago. This led to unsustainable expenses for the town, with Smith having noted that one dog placement in that kennel cost the local government $2,000 last year.

“We entered a primary contract with Chautauqua County Humane Society for stray dogs. That was something that we did not have over the last several years, and it was costing us a whole bunch of money,” said Smith. “So, getting us a primary contract with the Humane Society is, hopefully, going to save us a ton of money.”

Smith’s work began in January, when Smith would schedule a meeting to seek ideas from the organization. Smith stated that stray dogs are a problem county-wide and, with various solutions popping up in different municipalities, Smith wanted to hear recommendations from Jane Babinsky, Humane Society executive director. Specifically, with other towns discussing potentially building a shelter, Smith wanted to see if the town should consider this or a collaboration of some sort. Smith stated that, while not interested in the idea of building a shelter, the problem of stray dogs in both the town, and the overall county, must be addressed in some way. During this meeting Babinsky informed Smith that the shelter currently had a space open for a primary contract, an opportunity that the town officials seized.

Carbon the dog enjoys tons of affection and pets.

“After five days, if the owner of that dog isn’t found, the Humane Society then takes the dog and offers them up for adoption,” said Smith. “For us as a municipality to try to put that infrastructure in place, to start adopting out dogs and stuff on our own, we’re not set up for that.”

The town did previously have a contract with the Humane Society, however that contract was merely secondary contract. Smith stated that this gave many restrictions on when the town’s DCO could bring dogs, including taking a dog down if the Humane Society had space and if the town had already held the dog for five days, said Smith. Now the town can bring dogs down 24 hours a day, and the shelter will be more able to help dogs with recovery and vaccinations.

“(Babinsky) offered us that contract and then I brought it to the board meeting on Feb. 10,” said Smith. “Our board unanimously approved us to enter into that contract with them. As of the thirteen, that’s when I signed the contract and that’s when we entered the agreement.”