St. Cloud Changing Animal Shelters After Sauk Rapids Incident

ST. CLOUD -- After several dogs were left outside in the extreme cold this week, St. Cloud is ending its relationship with Central Minnesota Animal Care and Control.

The city will now be partnering with the Tri-County Human Society effective Friday.

St. Cloud's Health Director, Matt O'Brien says they've been thinking about making the move for a while, and this week's incident hastened the decision.

"We've wanted to use them [the Tri-County Humane Society] if at all possible for a while now, given their track record. Given some of the recent events [at CMACC], it was an easy decision to start using the humane society."

According to Sauk Rapids Police, officers responded to a caller saying the CMACC had several dogs left outside and unprotected from the extreme weather. The caller guessed the dogs had been outside for at least 15-20 minutes. Officers found several large and one small dog outside. Officers noticed the wind shelter was not attached in several places and it was providing little protection for the dogs inside.

Police made contact with the owner, who said an employee was cleaning and that's why the dogs were outside. Police say the dogs weren't injured from the exposure to the cold. The owner eventually went back to the shelter and put the dogs back inside.

Sauk Rapids Police Chief Perry Beise says no citations will be issued.

The Tri-County Humane Society is at 735 8th Street Northeast in St. Cloud.