Vet hopes to take over animal control for Zephyrhills

A local veterinarian says she hopes the City Council will consider her bid for animal control services even though she missed Friday's deadline.

Melanie McGavern, who owns Zephyrhills Animal Clinic on Gall Boulevard, said she was planning to partner with local animal trapper Tim Wilcox to submit a bid for private animal control for the city.

The city posted a request for proposals on its Web site on Oct. 23 but did not receive a bid before Friday's 3 p.m. deadline. McGavern said she thought the deadline was at 5 p.m.

"I didn't turn it in because I was told it wouldn't be accepted," McGavern said. "I still hope the council will consider our proposal. If there were other submissions, it wouldn't be fair to accept ours. But there weren't any."

McGavern e-mailed Council President Jodi Wilkeson and City Manager Steve Spina to ask for reconsideration. She explained that she and Wilcox agreed to submit a joint proposal.

"It was just a matter of who was going to be the submitter and who would be the subcontractor," she said.

Wilcox had openly campaigned for the contract. But late Thursday night, he told McGavern he had changed his mind and thought he should be the subcontractor. With a stable veterinary practice,

McGavern already had a 4,000 square foot boarding facility. She also has liability insurance and experience running an adoption program.

Wilcox, who traps wild animals and chickens for the city, could handle the fieldwork: trapping strays, caring for animals and conducting bite investigations. They agreed that McGavern would submit the bid. Wilcox told her the deadline was a 5 p.m.

"We should have double-checked the time," she said.

Wilkeson said McGavern made a compelling argument for the city to break from Pasco County Animal Services, which has one of the highest kill rates for all area animal shelters.

In the first three quarters of the year, Pasco County euthanized 5,386 cats - 85 percent of the cats brought to the shelter. Nearly 60 percent of 4,314 dogs brought to the shelter were euthanized during the same time period.

Wilkeson called the statistics "disheartening." She asked Spina to repost the request for proposals, and he said he would put the item on the council agenda for Monday.

"I don't see how we can abandon the process now," Wilkeson said. .

McGavern said she believes she and Wilcox could provide a comprehensive animal control program for slightly less than what the city pays Pasco County. But the cost would be higher than the $38,000 figure Wilcox quoted. She said he underestimated the number of animals that would need to be sheltered and cared for.

"I don't think he considered the number of people who leave animals on the doorstep of the veterinarians," she said. "In 2008, we had 25 dogs and 43 cats abandoned at our practice, and we adopted them all out. People are too lazy to get their dog spayed, and they dump their puppies on us."