A Public Service Contract

For nearly a century, HSHV has partnered with Washtenaw County to provide animal care and control sheltering services that benefit animals, taxpayers, and the community.

This partnership begins with the County’s legal responsibilities under Michigan’s 1919 Dog Law, which requires counties to provide animal control for stray dogs. The law’s purpose, still important today, is to protect public health and safety. Safely securing stray dogs doesn’t just prevent their injury and help the lost get back home, it also prevents traffic accidents, disease spread, and attacks on people or other animals.

But this antiquated law establishes only a legal minimum based on a world very different from our own. Today, nearly 70% of U.S. households have pets, and companion animals are cherished members of our families and communities.

This is why caring for animals and caring for people are not competing priorities. They are deeply interconnected. Companion animals contribute to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. For children, they help build confidence, responsibility, and empathy. For older adults, they offer companionship, comfort, and purpose. Good animal welfare services are also good human services, supporting the well-being of both people and animals and strengthening the community overall.

At the same time, our scientific understanding of animal health, behavior, and welfare has advanced dramatically. Shelter Medicine, for example, is now a specialty area within veterinary medicine.

As such, modern animal sheltering extends far beyond simply impounding stray dogs and killing them after a few days. Communities rightly expect humane treatment, professional veterinary and behavioral care, disease prevention, reunification with families whenever possible, accessible adoption programs, and a commitment to saving lives, regardless of species.

Rather than building and operating its own shelter, Washtenaw County contracts with HSHV to provide these services, avoiding the substantial capital, staffing, operating, and administrative costs of doing so.

To be clear, this is not a grant or charitable gift to HSHV. It is a contract for public services (albeit one that for most of our history did not fully cover the cost of even basic services). By leveraging HSHV’s expertise, facilities, volunteer and foster programs, charitable support, One Health approach, and economies of scale, the County ensures exceptional care for homeless and abused animals that would be difficult and significantly more expensive to replicate on its own.

Like any public contract, the agreement is subject to extensive oversight. Washtenaw County Administration reviews the calculations, data, and supporting documentation before recommending payment, helping ensure accountability and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

 

What Services Does the County Purchase?

Under the agreement, HSHV:

• Accepts all legally required stray, abandoned, seized, and bite-case animals brought by law enforcement, cruelty investigators, animal control officers, and the public.
• Holds animals for all required stray holding and bite-quarantine periods, including caring for animals during criminal prosecutions.
• Provides humane sheltering consistent with modern best practices, including housing, veterinary care, disease prevention, enrichment, and behavioral care.
• Strives to achieve the best possible outcome for every animal through reunification with owners, rehabilitation, and adoption.
• Complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, including oversight by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.
• Maintains detailed electronic records for every animal.

HSHV and the County Contract Numbers at a glance (2025)

HSHV total operating budget	$13,509,254
Direct cost of sheltering services	$5,155,309
Washtenaw County contract	$2,184,433

How Much Did Washtenaw County Pay HSHV to Care for an Animal for One Day?

For 2025:

• Annual County contract:   $2,184,433
• Total animal-care days:             80,875
• Average County payment per animal-day: $27.01

This figure is easily calculated from information HSHV routinely provides to the County.

The County contract is a flat-rate agreement, not a per diem reimbursement. As more animals enter our care or remain at HSHV longer, the average payment per day decreases. HSHV’s costs do not. The $27 figure reflects only the County’s average payment under the contract. It does not represent the actual cost of caring for any individual animal or the cost of operating an open-admission animal shelter.

The average daily payment also fails to capture the complexity of animal sheltering.

Animal sheltering is, in many ways, crisis work. We never know who or how many will come through our doors on any given day. We must always be prepared to care for whoever arrives—from healthy strays needing only a brief stay to critically sick or injured animals, hoarder cases, and cruelty victims requiring years of care while criminal cases move through the courts. Each animal receives the care needed to give them the best chance to recover and thrive, regardless of species or their medical, behavioral, or legal needs.

Why doesn’t HSHV report separate costs by species?

Because that’s not how an animal shelter operates. Veterinary staff, animal care staff, facilities, equipment, utilities, emergency response, and many support services are available to every animal. Most costs cannot be divided among cats, dogs, rabbits, or the many other species we serve.

 

Public Transparency & Accountability

Transparency is important to us, and so, too is accountability. Here are examples of our commitment to both:

• Charity Navigator 4-Star rating (top 1% nationally for fiscal management and accountability)
• Published independent annual financial audit (2024)
• Published IRS Form 990 (2024)
• Annual report to the community
• Published annual shelter statistics
• Independent Board of Directors and expert Finance Committee
• Public communication through reports, media, presentations, and community meetings
• An open-door shelter supported by 2,500 community-based volunteers
• Strong partnerships with local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, veterinarians, and public health officials
• State and national recognition for lifesaving outcomes

Additional County Contract Oversight

• Contract pricing based on a cost model developed collaboratively with the County and other community leaders
• Independent County review of methodology, calculations, and supporting documentation for costs
• Monthly reports documenting every contract animal, including intake, location found, outcomes, and days of care
• Regular updates regarding cruelty cases, criminal holds, shelter capacity, and contract impacts
• Cost and outcome comparisons to county-run animal control facilities in Michigan
• Public review through County Commissioner meetings and the County website

 

Public Funding + Private Investment

The County contract does not cover a number of services from which it still benefits. Charitable donations, grants, volunteers, foster families and community partnerships make possible programs and services that benefit residents and their animals and prevent unnecessary shelter intake, thereby reducing costs.

These include:

• Owner surrender sheltering and rehoming
• Cruelty investigations
• 24/7/365 wildlife rescue
• Community Cat (Trap-Neuter-Return) program
• Full-service veterinary clinic
• Free and low-cost veterinary care
• Bountiful Bowls pet food pantry
• Humane education
• Friends for Life pet family support
• Love Train transports
• Cat Café operations
• Pet reunification and shelter diversion efforts
• Community outreach and education
• Volunteer and foster programs (while the contract currently covers a portion of program management costs, these programs contribute more than 160,000 hours of donated service annually—equal to roughly 77 full-time employees)

 

Our Commitment to Transparency

Throughout our long partnership with Washtenaw County, contract costs, services, and responsibilities have been discussed publicly and reviewed through established governmental processes.

We believe transparency is fundamental to maintaining the public’s trust and an essential part of organizational excellence. Transparency means making information understandable and available. We do this through audited financial statements, public IRS filings, independent evaluations, annual reports, operational reporting, and ongoing engagement with the community.

Reasonable people can disagree on policy and public investment, but that shouldn’t be confused with a lack of transparency. We welcome thoughtful questions and are always happy to provide additional information or explanation.