Sikeston DPS restructures, takes control of PAWS

SIKESTON — The Sikeston Department of Public Safety is committed to the local community in a variety of ways.

One of those ways now includes some departmental restructuring within animal control as DPS now will manage Pet and Animal Welfare Services (PAWS).

“Originally, it was a community development, code enforcement role,” Capt. Jon Broom said of the restructuring coming to fruition. “About a year-and-a-half ago, it came under the DPS umbrella. As far as the reasoning, I am not 100% sure. They wanted the community development guys to really focus in on junk vehicles and neglected property, things like that.”

Responsibility of the animals remains vital as the push for adoption is paramount, Broom said in a Public Safety news release.

“We are committed to the ongoing expansion and improvement of services so that we continue to be recognized as a no-kill shelter and animal welfare organization within the City of Sikeston,” Broom said.

The transition benefits both entities.

“As law enforcement, we (DPS) already get a lot of animal calls,” said Broom. “We are pretty familiar with dog nuisance calls already; it improves the communication between us and animal control — as far as the location of [the call]. We are able to communicate that better with PAWS, for them to follow up on. It opens the lines of communication. PAWS is something that we really want the community to wrap its arms around.”

At the current time, Broom said, policies and procedures are getting an operational overhaul.

“That is what we are working on right now,” he said. “And that is what really spurred this. We really wanted to improve the service of PAWS to the community.”

Case in point: One recent adoption attempt where miscommunication occurred is one of the areas of needed improvement, Broom said.

“We had an issue where several puppies came available for adoption, and there were some miscommunications between the people adopting the dog and then the people who ended up getting the dog(s),” Broom said. “That was because there wasn’t any clear-cut rule, whether it was first-come, first-serve. We just want to improve those policies that they have and promote a more positive public image for PAWS.”

Another possible change, Broom said, was community engagement and additional education for the citizens of Sikeston.

“We want to start engaging the community more at public events,” said Broom. “For example, the trunk-or-treat they will have out at the Complex. PAWS is going to have a booth set up to hand out candy. We just really want to engage the community more [and] improve the image of PAWS. The goal of that is to bring more awareness. And that just improves people adopting animals.

He continued: “We have a lot of animals, so it can take a long time for animals to get adopted since PAWS is a no-kill shelter. We want to improve that image, promote it so more people are willing to adopt.”

For more information on the adoption process, call PAWS at 573-471-7387 during normal business hours Monday through Friday.