With the ending of a contract between Iberia Parish Government and the City of New Iberia for animal control on the horizon, city officials are weighing their options on what the future of animal control will look like.

Mayor Freddie DeCourt announced during the Dec. 20 New Iberia City Council meeting that a letter was received from parish government giving a 90 day notice for the end of city-parish agreement for animal control.

“They no longer want to serve as our shelter or pick up our dogs,” DeCourt said at the meeting. “That’s a huge issue. I didn’t see this coming that we’d have a deadline.”

The sudden break caused the City Council and mayor to weight what the city could do in the long term for animal control, with the possibility of building an animal shelter exclusive to New Iberia on the table.

Parish President Larry Richard sent an additional letter on Dec. 21 clarifying that the intent of the original letter was to terminate the most recent agreement between the city and parish, and return to an arrangement that existed in 1996, which includes the use of seven kennels each limited to a single animal.

Richard said Monday that the Iberia Parish Animal Control employees are constantly dealing with full occupancy, and that a large amount of the animals at the facility come from within New Iberia city limits.

With employees having to deal with more stringent regulations on occupancy space for a single animal, Richard said that giving those animals an opportunity to be healthy was a difficult task under the current contract.

“We’re trying to give every animal an opportunity to be rescued, the goal should be to give those animals a chance,” Richard said.

The City of New Iberia makes up about 50 percent of the occupancy of the kennels at IPAC currently. DeCourt said at the Dec. 20 meeting that the City of New Iberia paid about 46 percent of the overhead of IPAC through the current cooperative endeavor agreement and Health Unit tax that city residents pay.

“We’re paying 46 percent and we put in 50 percent so we’re pretty close, we’re just about paying for everything we’re getting,” DeCourt said at the meeting. “When I asked (if we should) just pay more money I got a letter that said, ‘I quit.’”

DeCourt clarified Monday that negotiations were back on the table after the second letter from the parish president was sent on Dec. 21. But with stray dogs being one of the most prominent issues in New Iberia city limits, city officials signaled that more animal control intervention is needed in New Iberia, not less. 

Richard said the current agreement for animal control was set in 2018 during the establishment of the New Iberia Police Department and was never meant to be a long-term agreement.

Both DeCourt and the New Iberia City Council were open to the idea of creating a city animal shelter if that was demanded, but a new agreement with the parish that would satisfy the current staffing and occupancy issues is the most immediate solution.