Salina City Manager Jacob Wood said they are not pursuing a path to bring a private organization to run the Salina Animal Shelter at this time.

Wood joined in on the KSAL Morning News Extra with a look at a range of issues including recent conversations on operations at the shelter that has been under the control of the City since 2013.

According to Wood the shift happened after Saline County took over the Health Department and the City assumed control of the Animal Shelter. After some discussion, the City Commission also placed the shelter under the Parks and Recreation Department instead of the Salina Police Department.

Now public discussion is raising the question of a private company taking over the shelter. A move Wood says they have had a few light conversations about – but have not been directed to scale up.

After failing a Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) inspection in January over reporting issues on practices and methods of euthanasia procedures by staff, that according to the state, were not properly documented, Wood says all euthanasia procedures are now preformed by veterinarians.

Salina City Commissioners back in March approved hiring an outside industry expert to conduct a complete operational assessment of the Salina Animal Shelter. Wood said the study will be reviewed in the coming days.

Listen to the segment from Tuesday’s interview here: