Kansas City set to take back animal control from KC Pet Project: ‘learned from a mistake’
Kansas City government employees are all but certain to once again take direct responsibility for enforcing the city’s animal-control ordinances after what some believe was a failed four-year experiment that outsourced the job to the animal welfare group KC Pet Project.
“I think we’ve learned from a mistake,” Councilman Eric Bunch said.
Bunch and the three other members of the council’s Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee voted on Tuesday in favor of the change, recommending that the full council approve their decision at Thursday’s regular meeting.
The move to make the change began with complaints from residents about the perceived lax enforcement of the city’s animal-welfare ordinances culminating with a fatal dog attack on a Kansas City man last fall.
KC Pet Project runs the city’s animal shelter under a separate subcontract and is largely lauded for the group’s operation of it. The nonprofit group has come in for criticism, however, for how it has managed city animal control under a separate contract since taking over from the city in December 2020.
Before KC Pet Project took over, a 2017 city audit had faulted the city-run animal-control unit for being overly focused on issuing tickets to pet owners, versus working to help correct the behavior that led to those citations for the benefit of animals and the community.
KC Pet Project won the city contract by promising to provide a better-balanced approach.
But the critics complain that too often KC Pet Project was unresponsive when people called to ask for assistance with dangerous dogs and about pets who were malnourished or mistreated.
The number of tickets issued fell dramatically after KC Pet Project took over. Complaints rose. When KC Pet Project’s contract came up for renewal last spring, the city decided to put it out for bid again after getting more than 200 complaints during the previous fiscal year, according to Forest Decker, director of the city’s Neighborhood Services Department.
Among the most common concerns, he said at a council committee meeting in December, were KC Pet Project’s slow response times, calls to KC Pet Project’s animal-control line that went unanswered, lack of follow-up on complaints and insufficient enforcement of city ordinances.
The city extended KC Pet Project’s contract for a year while Decker put out a request for proposals from others that might have wanted the job. Only KC Pet Project submitted a qualifying proposal, but a city review panel found it wanting on Dec. 2. It scored 67 on a scale of 100.
Exactly one month before KC Pet Project got that failing grade, vicious dogs attacked a Kansas City man riding a bicycle, leaving him grievously wounded.
Chris Culbertson’s death from those injuries inspired Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley to sponsor a resolution asking the city manager to make a plan for putting city employees back in charge of enforcing the city’s animal-control ordinances.
The attack also inspired KC Pet Project to bring in new leadership of its animal-control operations. With a background in law enforcement and a nationally known expert on animal-rescue operations, Eric Thompson audited KC Pet Project’s animal-control operations in November and found problems that needed to be corrected.
Since then he has hired and trained several new animal-control officers and initiated reforms on how they do business, he told The Star in an interview last month.
On Tuesday, Thompson said things are improving and that three of his roughly dozen animal-control officers were back at work after being hurt in a dog attack during an eviction on Monday.
“They all went to the hospital,” he said. “The dogs are apprehended and held accountable. These officers are back at work for this community today, and they’re here not knowing if they’re going to have a job. So it’s important to know that we are building exactly what you want, what you need, and we look forward to that support whatever it may be.”
He and other top members of KC Pet Project’s leadership asked the committee to give them more time to earn back the city’s trust and extend the animal-control contract for another two years.
But Bunch, committee chair Mayor Pro-Tem Ryanna Parks Shaw and fellow committee members Melissa Patterson Hazley and Nathan Willett said KC Pet Project’s reforms had come too late, and they were ready to move on.
“I appreciate your efforts. I appreciate your honesty with the council and letting us know that there definitely were things that were handled inappropriately,” Parks Shaw said.
Decker said the city would likely take over by October. KC Pet Project will coordinate with the city in the transition during that time and will most likely continue to run the shelter afterwards.
Both Kansas City officials and KC Pet Project agree that the city’s current chapter on animal control in the city code has flaws that impede the ability of animal-control officers to go onto private property without permission to impound vicious dogs and animals that are being mistreated.
Decker said he will suggest ordinance changes this year.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 6:30 PM.
