FORT SMITH, Ark — With hundreds of stray animals in the City of Fort Smith and weather that reaches over 100 degrees, many residents feel compelled to give stray dogs and cats food, water, and a cool place to rest.
But according to a Fort Smith city ordinance, no person shall provide and leave unattended food for stray dogs, stray cats, feral cats, deer, geese, ducks, raccoons, fowl, or other wild animals or wildlife.
The Artemis Project, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing homeless animals in the River Valley, says the city ordinance is good in theory. But for a city like Fort Smith that has an overwhelming stray animal population and a lack of resources, the ordinance proves to be dangerous.
Leydy Bonilla, a proud owner of four dogs, says that the ordinance won't be stopping her from helping strays. Especially one neighborhood favorite.
"Her name is Snow. The neighborhood named her that. She's very lovable, she's not violent in any way. She's a very good dog. She's just been in the streets for a couple months," Bonilla explains.
The neighborhood feeds Snow and gives her water every day. Bonilla’s family even offers her cool shelter.
"That's all she appreciated, honestly," Bonilla said. "So, I think she was just looking for some love."
Bonilla has called animal control twice in the last few months on top of other neighbors also calling in about Snow. Yet, no response. That’s why it came as a surprise to her when animal control showed up on her doorstep.
"I said, so you're confirming to me that she's on the list," she said. "You've received my phone calls, but you just don't have room for her, and now you want to come and give me a warning and tell me that I'm going to get a citation next time because I'm feeding her and giving her water."
The Artemis Project says this is an issue they’re facing with the local animal shelter every day.
"Unless we have a functioning city shelter that can pick up animals, there's just no humane way of handling a no feed, no resource demand from the city," says Mary McKinney with the Artemis Project.
The city sent 5NEWS a statement:
“The FSPD Animal Services Unit responds to every call it receives from residents. If a resident encounters a stray animal in need of food or water, residents should call Animal Services at 479-709-5000 and they will respond.
In the event that the animal shelter cannot take the stray animal due to capacity limits, the Animal Services Unit will work diligently to ensure the stray animal is cared for. The City of Fort Smith animal ordinances, alongside the spay and neuter voucher program, are designed to help control the stray animal population in our community. We appreciate the care and concern residents have for all animals in Fort Smith."
"It's a really discouraging situation for citizens in Fort Smith that do have big hearts for animals that want to help, because they're left in a really uncertain moral debate on whether they should break the law or feed an animal that they see obviously needs help at the moment," McKinney said.
Amber Neal, a local animal welfare advocate, says she is currently working on starting a petition to change the city ordinance.
"While we are working on the legal system, while we are working on creating better programs for the community, what the community can do is step up. We can't do it alone," Neal said. "They can volunteer, they can donate, they can advocate, they can educate, they can go and adopt or foster."
One community member stepping up is what saved Snow from inevitable danger.
"His name is Justin. He is our groomer. He came in and picked her up 30 minutes after because he could not believe what had happened, he came over, picked her up, put her in the car, and took her home," Bonilla said.
5NEWS reached out to the local animal shelter, Animal Haven, for comment and were referred to animal control. When we tried reaching out to animal control, we never got a response.
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