We’ve seen the City of West Des Moines’ press release about a new request for proposals (RFP) issued on July 7. What the city didn’t mention is that they previously issued an RFP (submissions closed June 18th 2025) specifically for adoption services for West Des Moines cats and rejected all proposals including one from Furry Friends. The prior RFP gave city staff the power to decide which cats could be rescued and adopted. When asked how many cats actually need adoption services, staff estimated only 25–40 per year.
The new RFP changes very little. City staff still make all the decisions about which animals can be saved. Separating cats and kittens into different categories doesn’t change the fact that staff can continue blocking animals from being rescued. Many residents have raised concerns about city staff making these life-or-death choices—and unfortunately, past actions support that city staff should not be making these determinations. Here’s why:
pictured kittens from WDM in need from July 12, 2025
Before Furry Friends began taking in stray cats directly, we helped the city with animals impounded at the old city shelter. When pressed for data, a heartbreaking fact was discovered: 68% of cats didn’t make it out alive. In response, Furry Friends offered to take all the city’s animals—cats, dogs, and others—at no cost.
In one instance, the city asked Furry Friends to take four cats. They agreed, scheduled a time for them to arrive, and had a medical team ready. The cats never came. They called repeatedly to check if the city needed help with transport. While repeatedly calling, the cats were killed. When we finally reached someone the next day, we were told: “We didn’t think you’d want those cats.”
Just this past week, a citizen found a kitten in West Des Moines needing urgent medical care. They brought the kitten to Furry Friends shelter, and called animal control. Over 30 minutes later, an officer returned the call and said they don’t accept animals from other shelters. They even questioned whether the citizen had really found the kitten, suggesting it might be a trick to make them take animals from “questionable sources.” In the end, they required the citizen to drive the kitten to the city shelter themselves.
When people find animals in need, they come to Furry Friends, not the city’s “holding facility” which is not open to the public and unmanned. By the end of our contract with the city in 2023, 80% of stray animals were coming directly to Furry Friends shelter—because city staff were did not want to be involved. The city has questioned whether these animals were truly from West Des Moines. This is a baseless concern. We documented where every animal was found and collected ID from the people who brought them in. The city has all of this information.
During the contract period, city staff were responsible for labeling animals as “feral.” They deemed 70% of cats and nearly all kittens feral (data available). Yet, paradoxically, they argued for over a decade that “almost no” feral cats existed in WDM—blocking TNR efforts. Their labels didn’t reflect the animals’ needs but served to justify what staff wanted to do. This week, a city officer even posted publicly that due to capacity issues, TNR is now the best option—highlighting a major shift in narrative.
Furry Friends spent 10 years pushing for a TNR ordinance to protect unsocialized cats (we have the emails to prove it). At one point, a city official—now assistant police chief—suggested the city should just kill feral cats again and not send them to the shelter. After the ordinance passed, officers refused to give the correct addresses of where feral cats were found, using the police department’s address instead. This made it impossible to return the cats as required—and then they blamed Furry Friends for not doing TNR. They also said Furry Friends three-day-a-week TNR services weren’t enough. Today, the city offers just one half-day of vet care each week for all impounded animals. That’s actually an improvement—because for most of the time the city ran its facility, they failed to provide or pay for vet care at all.
The mayor recently claimed the city terminated its contract with Furry Friends due to IDALS inspection reports and a dog bite involving a former employee. These claims are misleading.
Every contractor the city has worked with—including the city’s own holding facility—has had noncompliant items on IDALS reports. Furry Friends has always addressed and resolved any issues upon reinspection and has never had its license suspended—unlike other contractors the city has selected to work with. Noncompliant items for Furry Friends have included failing to sweep daily under cages, having dishes in the sink, failing to put away donations in the hallway and minor daily cleaning tasks. Distributing the over half a million dollar budget in an equitable manner would vastly improve the ability for the shelter to be deep cleaned.
The claim that the contract was ended over a dog bite at our facility or a refusal to euthanize is also inaccurate. Bite incidents have occurred at every organization the city has contracted with.
In reality, the city ended its contract with Furry Friends after the organization raised concerns about an improper declaration by the police chief regarding a citizen’s dog, as well as issues with new ordinance language. Though the city initially promised to address these concerns, it instead terminated the contract. That declaration was later found to be unlawful, and the city was court ordered to pay Furry Friends over $11,000.
Save WDM cats 