KCMO to oversee its own animal control operations, transfer from KC Pet Project

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Update: The Kansas City X (formerly Twitter) tweeted on March 7 shortly after 12:20 p.m. that animal control services will return to the City by the end of 2025.

The KC Pet Project has been in charge of animal control in KCMO since December of 2020, but that will no longer be the case.

Kansas City City Council voted to transfer control back into the City’s hands with a goal. Now, the work will begin to train 10 animal control officers before the end of the year.

KC Pet Project will still exist, as even its critics of animal control believe they do a good job of managing the shelter.

One of those critics is Kate Quigley, founder of Chain of Hope. She runs an organization that helps neglected and abused dogs in the urban core of Kansas City.

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“We have never criticized the shelter, the medical staff at the shelter. If you go through our Facebook post, we are calling them top-notch all the time,” Quigley said.

All of her complaints have to do with how they handle calls in the field- slow response, lack of enforcement, and poor communication, as well as not having enough officers to do a proper job.

“How are six or seven officers that need a couple days off during the week going to cover all the shifts in this city of 500,000 people?” Quigley said. “It’s just it’s failed. It was an experiment of privatization, and it’s failed.”

KC Pet Project stated that the move is a step backward, disrupting progress and putting pets at risk.

“There is no plan to improve services in this takeover—in fact, it risks a return to outdated, inefficient practices," KC Pet Project released in a statement. “Undoing years of progress in humane, data-driven animal care that the City is certain will cost taxpayers significantly more by not using the KC Pet Project. Despite the City’s decision, KP will continue providing other services to help people and pets.”

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