CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The city of Cheyenne finally has new standards regarding animal control treatment.
The Cheyenne City Council unanimously passed an ordinance amending Cheyenne’s Municipal Code Title 6. These regulations establish standards on how residents, animal welfare professionals and city staff should appropriately respond to the general care and control of animals, including pets, livestock and strays.
Over the past few months, the amendment stalled during city council sessions due to various concerns and last-minute changes. But on Monday night, all councilmembers voted to pass the amendment on its third and final reading.
“I think the animal shelter staff and [Richard] Johnson and our staff have been working on this for close to two years,” Mayor Patrick Collins said Monday about the municipal code updates.
A majority of the amendment to the 26-page document is language cleanup, but noticeable changes have been added as well, says Britney Tennant, director of Cheyenne Animal Shelter. Previously, Title 6 lacked clarity to definitions, which hindered the shelter’s ability to function efficiently. Some definitions that were in the code appeared nowhere else in the document.
“Sometimes when we’re using the code to make decisions on a day-to-day basis, it was sort of confusing,” Tennent told Cap City News. “We couldn’t really figure out what the intention was. So that was part of the cleanup effort, and I think that was a largely successful effort.”
The updates to the ordinance better allow the shelter to operate inline with industry best practices, Tennant said.
The animal shelter urged city staff to establish more transparency surrounding the county’s Community Cat program. For instance, the municipal code previously didn’t include language regarding how community caregivers can legally care for cats. The new code establishes those standards, elaborating on the definitions for “community cat,” “community cat caregiver,” “stray” and “trap-neuter-return.”
