Leadville/Lake County Animal Shelter Revises Adoption Policy After Banning Mobile Home Community
LEADVILLE, Colo. (CBS4)- The Leadville/Lake County Animal Shelter staff has removed a Facebook post telling neighbors in one specific mobile home park they were banned from providing home to a pet looking to be adopted. The reason behind the ban has caused some controversy in the community.
Betty Benson is a spokesperson with Lake County and says weeks of frustration came to a head with the now deleted post that drew critics from the Lake Forks Mobile Home Park community.
"You don't just walk in and walk out the door. There is an application. We do want the dogs to go to good homes," Benson said.
Benson said the decision to not allow people at Lake Forks to adopt was made with the safety of the adoptable dogs in mind.
"It was a very frustrating situation. All these people that were frustrated and frightened by the dogs that were running loose… how do we deal with this?" asked Benson.
Benson said calls about vicious dogs in that area running free concerned shelter staff to the point where they didn't want to adopt dogs out to homes there.
The situation came to a head this month when the shelter put out the now-deleted Facebook post stating that dogs would not be adopted to anyone living at Lake Fork.
"In hindsight, this is not the answer to our problem," Benson admitted.
Now the county, property managers and animal control are working on a new plan so animals that need homes can go to people who happen to call Lake Forks home.
"Having the opportunity to take a little break, figure out how to work the situation, seems valuable. Maybe that wasn't the right wording, the right way to approach it."
