Indianapolis Animal Care Services to become independent agency
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Animal Care Services will become an independent agency following a historic city-county council vote Monday.
The council passed proposal 256, which outlines components of the new animal care agency set to take effect Jan. 1. IACS is currently under the direction Department of Business and Neighborhood Services.
The plan aims to address was city leaders have long called an animal welfare crisis in the city. It adds over $1.1 million to the shelter’s current budget, increasing the current $6,985,677 budget to $8,138,806 in 2025.
“It basically just gives us a little bit more freedom and kind of removes … a little bit of ‘red tape’ that we have to go through for BNS,” Colleen Walker, IACS public information officer, said.
The plan also adds funding for a chief financial officer and an office manager. Both are positions the shelter currently operates without because they rely on BNS.
In addition to personnel changes, the funding will be used to pay for a kennel cleaning contract. Staff is currently responsible for all cleaning of the kennels.
Shelter statistics say IACS had over 450 animals in their care at the beginning of September. This reality makes keeping kennels clean a daunting task.
Kennels get cleaned once a day. Those 15 minutes may be the only time dogs are let out of their kennels in a 24 hour period, according to Walker.
“Unfortunately, we do not have the manpower to be able to go and make sure that every dog is getting out every couple of hours,” Walker said. “But, if they do go in their kennel, we do have people doing rounds and we do have volunteers walking around.”
Walker said this is one example of the shelter currently being understaffed and over capacity. It’s currently 125% over its housing capabilities.
The team there acknowledges ways in which this could impact animal care.
“It would be fair to say that these things do make it harder to get the best care that we have for the animals, but we are providing that care,” Walker said.
Some of these issues were highlighted by an employee from an animal welfare nonprofit embedded at IACS for a year of assessments.
IACS says changes will continue to be implemented when they open their new shelter building in 2026. Officials broke ground on it earlier this year.