Penn Hills has stuck with the pack as one of nearly 100 municipalities that pay Hoffman Kennels for animal control.
The two-year deal, approved in November, comes at a base rate of $2,000 a month plus $100 for each call after working hours.
The kennel, which has handled the municipality’s stray, dangerous and road-killed dogs for decades, has agreed to patrol three times a week, up from two.
For Pawsitive Voice, an organization comprised of Penn Hills residents seeking improved animal control practices, this was an unwelcome outcome after months of lobbying. Advocates with the group complained that Hoffman has inconvenient hours, no online presence and a limited ability to place strays in rescues — all leading to fewer reunions and more euthanizations.
Plus, many of them don’t trust kennel owner Gary Hoffman.
“All of this is to obviously get dogs home, but also prevent dogs from going to Hoffman Kennels, because Hoffman animal control has an awful reputation and there’s no transparency with this man,” said Wendy Hilfiker, a volunteer dog trapper with the group.
Hoffman started his Salem-based business in 1971 and has sinceaccrued dozens of communities — even whole counties — without much competition. He attributed his success to his clean facilities and experience with handling sick and aggressive dogs.
His kennel holds about 30 dogs, and, unlike some other animal control providers, he is willing to euthanize for space.
In an effort to dispel some of the claims against him, Hoffman allowed TribLive to tour his facility last month on short notice. He did not permit photography, but he did consent to a lengthy interview.
“Dogs aren’t born strays. They’re made strays by people,” he said. “I’m not the bad guy.”
Euthanization legal per state law
Hoffman is unapologetic about running a kill shelter — a perfectly legal choice, even if some find it unsavory.
State law allows shelters to adopt out, transfer or euthanize unlicensed strays after a two-day hold. Licensed dogs, meaning they have a tag or microchip, must be kept for five days following the delivery of a certified letter to the owner.
Records from the state Department of Agriculture show Penn Hills police transferred 46 dogs to Hoffman between the start of this year and mid-September. Of those, 12 were killed by injection.
Heather Momich is a volunteer with Paws Across Pittsburgh who briefly collaborated with Hoffman before a falling out between the two. She acknowledged not every dog can make it out alive, but decried his refusal to work with foster-based rescues, which are willing to place dogs in temporary housing to free up shelter space.
“They’re getting paid to do a job, and they’re not doing anything but sticking a dog in the kennel,” she said. “Every dog there deserves a second chance.”
Momich, like Pawsitive Voice, also wants the kennel to post online about dogs in its possession and extend its hours beyond 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, Mondays through Fridays. Despite being closed, Hoffman still charges people $15 a day for boarding over the weekend.
“I have to have a life,” Hoffman said.
While Hoffman may not be meeting advocates’ standards, his facility routinely passes inspection from the state Bureau of Dog Law.
These unannounced checks are conducted twice a year by Jerome Shepler, the dog warden assigned to Westmoreland County, according to a state Department of Agriculture spokesperson. Shepler is sometimes accompanied by a supervisor or veterinarian.
Past controversy and current solutions
Penn Hills has periodically weighed whether Hoffman is the best fit.
In 2018, activists demanded the kennel provide more detailed invoices, hold dogs for longer and make other tweaks.
An online petition started that year against Hoffman has garnered 5,239 signatures as of Dec. 5, including some from just a few months ago. Little has changed.
Penn Hills brought back its Animal Welfare Task Force earlier this year. In multiple meetings between officials and the task force, members asked that animal control procedures, such as scanning for microchips and contacting owners, be followed more diligently.
The meetings also were meant to explore different contractors, but in the end, according to Mayor Pauline Calabrese, “there is no alternative” to the current arrangement.
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Hoffman is not the only dog catcher in Western Pennsylvania, but it does have the most capacity.
Dawn Weichler, animal control officer for Sable Kennel in McKeesport, said she spoke with Penn Hills officials and residents about a possible deal but ultimately declined for lack of space.
“The fact is that people are dumping dogs at a more rapid pace than what we can keep up with,” she said of the industry as a whole.
One way to combat this, she mentioned, was municipalities running their own shelters, like Monroeville has for years.
There are some updates to animal control policy in the works, according to Councilman Alan Waldron, who serves as the unofficial liaison between the task force and police.
Police alert the community via Facebook when dogs come into their custody — though not always immediately, as some online commenters have noted.
Waldron said, going forward, follow-up posts will be made when the dogs are claimed by their owners or taken to Hoffman. Lost-and-found posts will appear on his Penn Hills Passport app soon as well.
Complaints also have emerged from Pawsitive Voice that police are not allowing people to circumvent Hoffman and try to track down dog owners themselves.
Penn Hills police Chief Ronald Como made clear that residents are obligated to report stray dogs to authorities. At that point, an officer will scan the dog for a microchip if they can safely do so, place it in one of four kennels at the station and wait for Hoffman.
“It’s like if you are in Giant Eagle and you find $20 on the ground. It’s not finders keepers,” he said. “People don’t like that answer, but, technically, it’s lost or mislaid property.”