Building History
Flathead County Animal Shelter was opened by the county in 1983, located at the county’s landfill site. Like many other municipal shelters throughout North America, its early years were marked by high intake numbers coupled with undersized pet housing and was not staffed to deal with these challenges. This unfortunate combination resulted in extremely high euthanasia rates.
In 1998 the shelter was relocated to 225 Cemetery Road (its current location). The animal housing size increase coupled with a staff increase resulted in lower euthanasia rates, but still in the double-digit range.
In 2008, Flathead City-County Health Department assumed oversight of the shelter. Adopting recognized industry guidelines for cat and dog housing size as well as guidelines on population management has brought euthanasia numbers down to single digits and “length of stay numbers” down to exceptionally low levels.