Members of the Niagara Falls City Council did not approve a request Wednesday night from Mayor Robert Restaino to extend a contract with a Grand Island animal shelter that currently provides “dog control and boarding services” for the city.
Council members instead voted unanimously to table consideration of the contract extension after a parade of public speakers, including the executive director of the SPCA of Niagara, told them they had serious concerns about the operation of the shelter by Pit Chic Inc.
“I’m really sorry to be here,” said Amy Lewis, the SPCA executive director, “because it means there’s something wrong with your dog shelter process.”
The city had previously contracted with the SPCA to provide dog control and sheltering services, but Lewis said when she returned for a second tenure at the not-for-profit, she told city officials their contract would not be renewed. Lewis said “skyrocketing” intakes of stray dogs under municipal dog control contracts threatened the SPCA’s financial viability.
She told the Falls and other Niagara County municipalities that the Lockport Road shelter was going to exit the “dog control business.” Niagara Falls’ contract expired in October 2023 and the last city dogs left the shelter on Dec. 31 of that year.
“I was met with criticism and mudslinging (from Falls’ officials) and that’s important to know,” Lewis told the council members, “because it delayed the process of the city moving on with dog sheltering.”
Faced with a looming deadline to move the city’s stray dogs, Restaino, in July 2023, proposed that the city contract with Pit Chic for the services formerly provided by the SPCA. The contract, which runs through Dec. 31, costs the city $20,270 a month for the sheltering of up to 17 dogs.
The city can also shelter additional dogs at a cost of $37 a day.
Under the contract, the Falls agreed to purchase 45 kennels for the shelter to house seized dogs and required the Pit Chic to make seized dogs available for adoption under New York’s Agriculture & Markets Law.
The contract with the Pit Chic was awarded without a competitive bidding process, on an “emergency basis.”
Critics have said that since the Pit Chic took over sheltering services for the city, the facility has operated over its capacity and has refused help from other shelters, including the SPCA.
“We have nothing against the Pit Chic,” Lewis said. “But over the last week we have been taking stray dogs from the Falls and dogs that haven’t been surrendered are being dumped on the (Tuscarora) reservation and the City of Lockport.”
Despite the stray dog problem in the Falls, Lewis told council members, “We can’t be the option for the city.”
Other speakers told the council about being turned away by the Pit Chic and Falls police while trying to find care for injured stray or missing dogs, including one struck by a car on Wednesday.
The Pit Chic shelter has also faced allegations of failing to provide proper care for the city dogs.
“It’s my concern that this vendor is not the proper vendor for this contract,” Anna Grabowski told the council.
Restaino asked the council to extend the Pit Chic contract until Dec. 31, 2025 or until the city completes the construction of a new $4.5 million dollar shelter in Hyde Park, scheduled to be completed by summer 2025. Once the new shelter is built, the city has said it will solicit bids for a vendor to operate it.
In voting to table the contract extension, council members said they had “questions” about the Pit Chic’s services.