A TAIL OF TWO CITIES PASADENA SHELTER WILL HANDLE ANIMAL CONTROL FOR GLENDALE.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The Glendale Humane Society no longer will be the city's dog catcher, handing over its longtime role as animal controller to Pasadena's shelter.

City Council members voted 3-1 this week to hire the Pasadena Humane Society as the city's interim animal control provider, while they determine a more permanent plan, which could be a city-built animal shelter, Councilman Dave Weaver said.

``All of us 100 percent agree that we're going to build a new shelter in Glendale - that's the biggest positive that's come out of this. That was unheard of five years ago,'' said Weaver, who voted against moving the services to Pasadena.

The decision came after months of dispute between the Glendale Humane Society and City Hall over funding for the tasks of caring for strays, catching aggressive dogs and picking up dead animals, said Paulette Ramsay Wood, spokeswoman for the Glendale Humane Society.

In June, the shelter rejected an 18-month contract for the job, which ruffled the city's feathers and got officials looking elsewhere, Weaver said.

Tuesday, the plan to shed the Glendale shelter as the animal controller took shape.

``We will not be the dogcatcher anymore. Having that huge function taken away from us, we'll be able to do a better job at what we do best,'' Wood said.

Wood said that the city had not provided the Glendale shelter with enough funding to run the entire operation well, and it was straining other shelter functions.

The Glendale Humane Society has been the city's animal controller for more than 50 years.

``We lost focus and could no longer do what we were really established to do in 1924: finding loving homes for pets, educating the public on spay- and-neuter programs, offering low-cost spay-and-neuter programs, offering animal education to kids,'' Wood said.

Pasadena's $201,000 contract will last through Jan. 1, at which point the Glendale City Council will have to assess the situation once more, Weaver said.

Steve McNall, executive director at the Pasadena Humane Society, sees serving Glendale as a challenge his shelter is ready to meet. But he agrees that the best-case scenario is for Glendale to build its own shelter.

``This puts a burden on our organization because we have been able to keep our euthanasia of adoptable animals at a really low rate, but with another city bringing in an unknown number of animals, we don't know what the impact will be,'' McNall said.

The coverage area of the Pasadena Humane Society will increase by 60 percent with the addition of Glendale, which is about seven miles from the Pasadena facilities.

The Pasadena shelter also serves South Pasadena, San Marino, La Canada Flintridge and Arcadia.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Tina, an American alligator, is one of the denizens of the Pasadena Humane Society facility.

(2) Pasadena Humane Society Executive Director Steve McNall sees serving Glendale - a move the Glendale City Council approved Friday - as a challenge his shelter is ready to meet.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer