No Kill Louisville Vying for Animal Services Contract

At least one Louisville-area animal care group is vying to take over certain operations of Metro Animal Services.Mayor Greg Fischer decided earlier this month to privatize much of the troubled department. This week, one of the likely contenders for the contract to take over the operations, the Kentucky Humane Society, announced it would not submit a bid to the city. Organization officials cited the lack of existing plans to replace the substandard Manslick Road LMAS facility.But No Kill Louisville will make a bid. Organization president Jessica Reid says she's working on a plan to repurpose the shelter, and she was surprised the Humane Society decided not to bid."If that's what they feel is best, then that's what they feel is best. It's really not my place to comment on their decisions. They do some great things for animals and whatever happens, whoever ends up with LMAS needs to partner with KHS in some capacity," she says. "We are working on hammering out all the details, going through everything from the transition to the funding to how we could repurpose Manslick while we work to build a different shelter. So we definitely have a plan we're working on. We're trying to shift from being an all volunteer group. Obviously, if we were to get the bid, we'd have to move into employing people. So that is one of our biggest challenges, but it's not insurmountable. It's just having all the pieces in place."Bids are being accepted for the next week and a half. Information on who has bid is kept secret until later in the selection process.