Cookeville City Council will consider the purchase of property at 180 Miller Road, the current home of the Wags and Whiskers Spay and Neuter Clinic.
City Manager James Mills told council during a Monday work session the Animal Control Board was approached by the property owner about purchasing the property. Mills said the city has had conversations about building a spay and neuter clinic in the past.
“The concern on what we have been trying to address is to remove the potential for not having a clinic,” Mills said. “And there’s been some issues over the last few years about the continued operation of a spay and neuter clinic, and we have to have a spay and neuter clinic.”
The city would purchase the 1.3-acre property for an estimated $399,000. Mills said he believes the price is a good deal.
“We believe this is a great price for this structure, and it delays us for many, many years from having to need to build a facility,” Mills said. “And as I said earlier, we would continue to lease this out for somebody to operate. Most likely Wags and Whiskers, as long as they stay in operation to continue to operate the clinic there. Wags and Whiskers owns all the equipment in it, so that’s another thing that if we got our own clinicyou got to buy all the equipment and you have got to hire the veterinarians, so to me this is a win-win deal for the city, the animal shelter in particular for the animals in Putnam County.”
Cookeville/Putnam County Animal Shelter Director Jennifer Tracy said the shelter has had to travel in some cases to get animals spayed and neutered.
“Dunlap, about once a month during kitten season, I take 25-30 kittens down there, I’ve used the clinic in Crossville, I’ve used Nashville Humane in the past,” Tracy said. “So, Tennessee state law requires that all animals adopted from a shelter have to be spayed or neutered. There are some contingencies for letting an unaltered animal go home with an adopter, but that is a pain and gives me a lot of stress.”
Mills said the city would use funds that have been set aside for capital projects for the animal shelter to pay for the purchase. The council will vote to purchase the property this Thursday.
