08/29/2025
And the chaos at Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control continues.💔🐾
Last week KCRG had a story on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) State Inspection Report regarding multiple structural problems at the Cedar Rapids shelter facility including mold, high humidity levels, dirty ceiling tiles that could collapse into the dog kennels. The very first complaint from a previous shelter manager was leveled in 2014, eleven years ago on a facility that was barely one year old. The most damning statement in last weeks State IDALS report was:
“It appears the City of Cedar Rapids has abandoned their responsibility to maintain a structure that was completed in 2013”.
That impactful statement says absolutely everything about the long term inattention given to the shelter by the City of Cedar Rapids. Last Friday, Shelter Manager Rae Smith, recently hired and on duty for barely five months, was suddenly fired by the City Managers Office after the KCRG report became public. Our opinion is this appears to be a retaliatory event toward Manager Smith calling attention to the structural deficiencies at the shelter that could impact the safety of the animals and the staff. The City Managers Office, after years of ignoring the many ongoing problems that existed at this facility including lack of kennel space to lack of staff, has made yet another inappropriate and spiteful choice of action in this firing. Perhaps an overt attempt to shift blame in a punitive manner. Our opinion is the City has yet to accept their long term responsibility in this mess and is now waging a PR war, not for the sake of the animals and staff, but for themselves and their own appearance. This is not neccesary.
Why has Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control recently been moved from the oversight of the Cedar Rapids Police Department, a public safety department that has worked seamlessly with the shelter since 2007, and has now been shifted under the direct oversight and operations of the City Managers Office. The Managers Office has absolutely failed this shelter, the animals and the employees over so many years. They are now in control of shelter operations. They have no experience or knowledge in sheltering. We feel this has been done to control the narrative. It is not in the animal’s or staff’s best interest. If the City simply did what was right by the shelter without worrying about public opinion, rather than placing blame as a deflection of responsibility, things would go much smoother. The citizens of this city want what is best for the animals. They do not want iron-fisted bureaucratic management of the city’s homeless and challenged animal population.
Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids along with so many of our partner rescue and animal welfare organizations have been attentive to the shelters overwhelming needs for kennel space. We all have known for many years, the ongoing problems with this department of the City of Cedar Rapids. All of our organizations have worked hard to keep the staff from having to euthanize animals for a severe lack of space. We have open communication with the staff regarding the many dogs and cats who call this shelter their temporary home. Many of us are in the shelter several times a week. Sheltering is a team effort. Critter Crusaders formed out of this shelter in 2008. To assume that our organizations do not know the issues and see the long term lack of support from the City, would be a mistake.
We thank Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell for responding quickly when our organizations and the media finally shined a much needed recent spotlight on this shelter and it’s problems. We were very hopeful that in time, the shelter and staffing needs would be addressed, especially with the addition of the experienced managers Rae Smith and assistant manager Lauren Hopkins. But we are completely disheartened by the firing of a good manager, Rae Smith and what appears to be the ongoing incompetence, inattentiveness and retribution of the City Managers Office as they stumble through a takeover of a large city animal shelter.
This is only compounding the problems that have been buried for years, while ignoring the role of the very qualified, competent and experienced staff that should be guiding this reboot. Compassion should be a guiding force at the shelter, with animals and the wonderful employees who care for them. Instead we see a very punitive reaction to the efforts of these individuals that were thrust into a very chaotic shelter caused by the City. It’s a gut wrenching shame. Cedar Rapids can do better than this.
